Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner sparred with former Democratic Pennsylvania Rep. Patrick Murphy on Monday as he defended Vice President Kamala Harris’ record on energy policy.

Murphy argued against critics who say President Joe Biden’s administration is attempting to eliminate fossil fuels, saying there has been increased drilling for natural gas and oil under the president’s leadership. Faulkner argued the Biden administration continues to tap the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) in order to intentionally stray the U.S. away from domestic fossil fuel production.

“When you say they’re trying to get rid of the fossil fuels, the carpet doesn’t match the drapes, brother,” Murphy said.

“Excuse me?” Faulkner snapped.

Murphy said the Biden administration presided over the most drilling for fossil fuels in American history, though the increase in production occurred on private and state lands as Biden passed laws limiting production on federal property, the Daily Caller News Foundation reported in November. The U.S. may have been able to produce at least an additional 2 million barrels of oil per day since 2021 if the Biden administration had adopted similar policies as those enacted during former President Donald Trump’s administration.

“We’ve had more fossil fuel production. I’m saying the audio doesn’t match the video here, Harris,” Murphy said. “When he said we’re against fossil fuels, we’ve drilled more for oil and natural gas in American than in American history under the Biden-Harris team.”

“Then why does he keep tapping the [Strategic Petroleum Reserve]? Why is he putting us in danger, Biden, and now Biden-Harris because we gotta look at her too because she’s always ‘the president,’ the last person in the room on every major decision that effects us. Why does he keep tapping the reserve [SPR] when we know we’re in trouble when we do that and we don’t put as much in?” Faulkner interjected.

‘Excuse Me?’: Fox News’ Harris Faulkner Spars With Former Dem Congressman Over Kamala Harris’ Energy Record pic.twitter.com/bNzR4S07Al

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) July 29, 2024

Murphy said Biden tapped the SPR to mitigate the record high gas prices that soared during his administration, reaching $5 per regular gallon in June 2022, according to AAA. The average regular gas prices currently stands at $3.5 per gallon, down from $3.7 per gallon in the previous year.

The Biden administration released about 200 million barrels of oil from the SPR ahead of the 2022 midterm elections as high gas prices became a key political issue. The administration released 1 million oil barrels from the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve (NGSR) in May to bring down gas prices as the 2024 election inched nearer. (RELATED: Biden Admin Contracts 1,000,000 Barrels From Emergency Gasoline Stockpile To ‘Lower Prices’ Ahead Of July 4th) 

Murphy further said the Biden administration signed off on the Willow Project in 2023 to produce 500,000 additional gallons of domestic oil, while Faulkner accused the administration of tapping the SPR to abandon fossil fuels.

“Where does she stand, by the way, Kamala Harris, on fracking? Do you know?” Faulkner asked.

“Yeah, she agreed with President Biden that she believes in fracking,” Murphy said, followed by more pushback from Faulkner.

Harris told a voter “there is no question” she supports a ban on fracking during a September 11, 2020, CNN town hall. She backtracked on this issue, with her campaign recently putting out a statement that she no longer supports a ban on fracking.

“There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris said at the town hall during her presidential candidacy. “And starting with what we can do on day one around public lands, and then there has to be legislation. But yes, and this is something I’ve taken on in California, I have a history of working on this issue, and to your point, we have to just acknowledge that the residual impact of fracking is enormous in terms of the impact on the health and safety of communities.”

Harris’ campaign said in a Sunday statement that the presumptive Democratic nominee does not intend to ban fracking.

“Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class,” the statement said. “The Biden-Harris Administration passed the largest ever climate change legislation and under their leadership, America now has the highest ever domestic energy production.”

Fracking has been responsible for the production of more than 7 billion barrels of oil and 600 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, as well as creating roughly 2.7 million jobs in the U.S., according to the Independent Petroleum Association of America.

Biden promised voters to “end fossil fuel” during his presidential campaign run in 2019, but later said he favored a gradual energy transition and the elimination of particular subsidies for the fossil fuel industry during a debate against Trump in 2020.

Harris co-sponsored the Green New Deal in 2019 during her time as a California senator, which intended to transition the U.S. away from its reliance on fossil fuels and supported abolishing the filibuster to ensure the legislation reached the president’s desk.

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