Kamala Harris – who threatened to file criminal charges against oil companies in 2019 – is now praising domestic energy production

Your flip flops are like oil and water.

Vice President Kamala Harris threatened to file criminal charges against major oil companies during her 2019 White House run, but now she’s giving the industry high marks for its booming production.

Her dramatic shift in support for domestic oil and gas production is one of several political shifts revealed since Harris replaced President Biden in the 2024 Democratic nomination.

“You should really be prepared to face a big fine or be charged with a crime,” Harris told a town hall attendee in South Carolina back in November 2019 when asked if she would investigate the role of oil companies in climate change .

The then-California senator continued to accuse the oil companies of a cover-up and compared them to cigarette manufacturers.

“And much like the tobacco companies, they knew after years — because they had done the research — what harm their product was doing,” Harris said at the town hall, according to CNN. “They made so much money that they kept it secret – the same goes for these big oil companies.”

“And they have to pay the price,” she added. “So yes is the answer.”

CNN discovered more than a dozen mentions of “prosecuting big oil” in material from Harris’ 2020 campaign, citing the threat of climate change.

“They had done the studies and knew the harm their product was causing, but they pushed their product anyway because they were making a lot of money. The same goes for Big Oil,” Harris said at a campaign rally in Iowa in 2019, according to the media.

“They have known for a long time what they are doing – which is destroying this God-given planet,” she said, once again comparing Big Oil to Big Tobacco.

During her first run for the White House, Harris also falsely claimed that she had “sued” ExxonMobil – the largest domestic oil company in the US – as California’s attorney general.

Harris launched an investigation into the oil giant over allegations it misled the public and shareholders about the threat of climate change, but never filed a lawsuit.

Harris’ tough comments on oil dovetailed well with other far-left positions on energy that she trumpeted in 2019, including support for the Green New Deal, banning fracking and banning gasoline-powered cars.

These are all policies she rejected in her last presidential bid.

“We have seen the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because we recognize that we cannot rely too heavily on foreign oil,” Harris said at a campaign rally in Philadelphia last month.

Her campaign website also touts the oil and gas industry’s “record energy production” under the Harris Biden administration, describing it as “ensuring America’s energy security and independence.”

However, the recent surge in U.S. oil production has been largely attributed to better drilling technology and market forces, rather than the policies of the Harris Biden administration.

Her website makes no mention of prosecuting big oil companies, but Harris touts the “tens of millions of dollars in settlements” against the industry during her time as Claifornia AG and vaguely vows to “hold polluters accountable.”

The Post has reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.