No one seemed to be sure what to expect from last night's debate, particularly given Kamala Harris' lack of any clear policy statements combined with Donald Trump's recent struggles to stay on message and avoid name-calling or comments on Kamala's race, etc. But at least for those supporting the former president, one opportune topic was highly anticipated. It seemed inevitable that the moderators would have to ask the candidates about their positions on the topic of domestic energy production and the dangerous game we have been playing with the country's increasingly fragile power grid. This is an area where Donald Trump should easily be able to dominate while Kamala has flip-flopped on everything from fracking to green energy, with no clear statement regarding how the situation would change under her leadership as compared to the mess we've seen with Joe Biden (or whoever has been pulling his strings) at the helm.

Sure enough, the topic did come up briefly during the debate, though the moderators were pitching softballs for the most part and not following up with any probing questions or calling out Harris' recent reversals on this issue. Still, Harris was forced to at least attempt to defend her "evolving stance" on fracking and related energy issues. It didn't go well for Harris, but to be fair, Donald Trump also failed to capitalize on the moment as many of us had hoped he would. (CNBC)

Vice President Harris emphatically stated her support for a diverse energy portfolio, pushing back against accusations that she wants to ban fracking. "My values have not changed," Harris asserted. "My position is we have got to invest in diverse sources of energy so we reduce our reliance on foreign oil."

Harris touted the administration's record on domestic oil production, claiming, "We have had the largest increase of domestic oil production in history."

Former President Trump wasted no time in attacking Harris's energy stance, accusing her of flip-flopping on the issue. "Fracking? She's been against it for 12 years," Trump claimed, adding that Harris had also shifted her position on other key issues like police funding and gun rights.

Here's the video of the exchange.

It's rather amazing how blatantly Harris either lied or misdirected during that brief exchange and how ready the moderators were to check that box off their list and move on without probing more deeply. First of all, saying "my values haven't changed" is a flat-out lie. We have the receipts to prove it. Harris vowed to ban fracking repeatedly and even continued making statements along those lines long after Joe Biden abandoned the subject out of fear of losing Pennsylvania. It was only when the twisting currents of fate shoved Harris into a position where she might actually have to do something herself and be held accountable that she began to change her tune.

You will note that Harris also proudly touted the fact that the Biden-Harris administration oversaw "the largest increase of domestic oil production in history." That's actually very close to being true, not that you ever heard them bragging about it until now. (The original surge in the northeast in the early days of drilling was vastly larger on a per capita basis.) But speaking as someone who follows the energy industry closely for a living, I can assure you that our nation's oil and natural gas producers are not thanking Biden and Harris for this. They increased production in spite of Biden's policies, not because of them. They adjusted their drilling plans, shifting away from lands that Biden was blocking off. They increased their focus on foreign markets and new technologies, including liquified natural gas (LNG) to pick up the slack. 

To his credit, Trump did clap back at Harris over her answer, calling her out for her totally inconsistent record on fracking. But he quickly pivoted from there to other policies where she has reversed course multiple times. That was also an effective line of attack, but the energy policy issue remains a critical one and there was plenty of leverage to be gained if he had stuck to addressing one of his strongest policy positions and his own record of results.

Industry analysts were quick to jump in and point out the way Harris is trying to evade any debate over energy and leave this vital issue hanging in the air vaguely. In response to the Presidential Debate, Daniel Turner, Founder and Executive Director of Power the Future issued the following statement:

“Kamala Harris was allowed to stay vague on her policy flip-flops, offering zero reasons for her alleged change of heart on fracking and electric vehicles. That’s why we should all be suspicious of what Kamala Harris says, but never doubt what she’s done. Kamala Harris illegally stopped natural gas exports hurting states like Pennsylvania, and oversaw the fewest acres leased for oil production since World War II. She can hide from answering questions on the debate stage, but can’t hide from the truth.”

When Donald Trump and his campaign team go back to review this debate and the subsequent fallout over the domestic energy issue, I hope that they begin placing more emphasis on this. There are so many data points to cite that Kamala Harris should be left drowning in them. Gas prices over the last eight years are an obvious high-value target. Drilling and refinery jobs in oil-producing states are another. The list goes on. The weeks until the election are slipping by and this race is still far closer than I had thought possible, so this is no time to let up on the gas pedal, either figuratively or literally.