“You should be really prepared to look at a serious fine or be charged with a crime,” Harris said in November 2019 when a South Carolina town hall attendee asked whether she would investigate companies such as Chevron and Shell for their role in contributing to climate change. ...
“And, not unlike the tobacco companies, after years — ’cause they’d done the research — they knew the harm that their product was causing. They were making so much money that they kept that secret — same thing with these big oil companies. And they need to pay the price,” she said. “So yes is the answer.” Harris made a similar promise when speaking with the liberal Mother Jones magazine a month earlier, saying, “Let’s get them not only in the pocketbook, but let’s make sure there are severe and serious penalties for their behaviors.” ...
Campaigning in Philadelphia last month, Harris pointed to the Biden administration’s record on increasing domestic oil production, telling voters, “We have had the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot over rely on foreign oil.” ...
Archived material from Harris’s 2020 campaign found more than a dozen mentions of prosecuting Big Oil either for pollution or climate change. Citing climate change as an urgent threat, Harris said aggressive action was imminently needed. ...
During a CNN town hall on climate change in 2019, asked whether she would sue ExxonMobil, Harris responded, “I have sued ExxonMobil.”
However, this claim was incorrect. While Harris did initiate an investigation into ExxonMobil for allegedly misleading the public and shareholders about the risks of climate change, she never filed a lawsuit against the company.
