President Obama is living in “an imaginary world where government-subsidized windmills and solar panels could power the economy. This vision has failed.”
“While the president now professes a combination of innocence and helplessness in the face of rising prices, the truth is that expensive energy was his plan all along,”
“America is an energy-rich nation, and it is time we stopped living like an energy-poor one,” he said. “As president, I will unleash American innovation and productivity to make full use of our natural resources.”
Romney called for a “dramatic regulatory reform to accelerate the exploration and development of oil and gas;” an expansion of production both onshore and offshore and to begin drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; and investments in energy technology “without picking winners or stifling the energy sources of today.”
(Andrew Restuccia, “In Ohio, Romney takes aim at Obama on energy,” The Hill, 3/5/12)
Romney Refused To Take A Position On The Cross State Air Pollution Rule, Saying Only There Needs To Be A Way To Ensure One State’s Pollution Isn’t Overwhelming Another.
“On Sunday frontrunner Mitt Romney avoided saying whether he backs a major new EPA rule to limit power plant pollution that blows eastward across states lines, but also noted that he backs the goal of the regulation. ‘I am not familiar with the specific regulation as it applies to New Hampshire, but I do believe we have a responsibility to keep the air clean and we have to find ways to ensure that we don’t have the pollution of one state overwhelming the ability of another state to have clean air,’ Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, said Sunday morning during the Facebook/NBC News debate ahead of Tuesday’s New Hampshire primary.”
(Ben German, “GOP debate: Romney avoids stance on EPA air pollution rule,” The Hill, 1/8/12)
“In Late October, Romney Reversed His Past Position That Human-Caused Emissions Appeared To Be At Least In Part Responsible For Rising Global Temperatures.
‘My View Is That We Don’t Know What’s Causing Climate Change On This Planet,’ Romney Told A Pittsburgh Audience.”
(Jennifer Yachnin, “Perry takes new swipe at Romney’s environmental views,” E&E News PM, 11/7/11)
Romney Has Reversed Positions On Cap And Trade, Having Once Supported A Regional Agreement And Later Opposing The Measure.
“Romney has also shifted his position on cap and trade, supporting a regional agreement with other Northeastern states in 2005 when he served as Massachusetts’ governor but later opposing such measures.”
(Jennifer Yachnin, “Perry takes new swipe at Romney’s environmental views,” E&E News PM, 11/7/11)
Would Streamline Regulations For Energy Production And Give Congress The Final Approval Over Major Regulations.
“Romney proposes streamlining regulations for energy production in particular to avoid what he described as ‘self-inflicted wounds’ on the nation’s energy security. Above all, he calls for giving Congress the final say over major regulations — a controversial idea for those who think politics would hamstring necessary regulation, but a popular proposal among those who believe agencies such as the EPA have too much power.”
(Bill Steiden, “EPA In GOP Crosshairs,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/18/11)
Would Seek To Remove EPA’s Authority To Regulate Greenhouse Gases And Require The Agency To Take Economic Costs Into Consideration When Promulgating Rules.
“GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney in his just-released jobs plan says that if elected, he will move to abolish EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases and require the agency to consider economic costs in its rules, while taking a variety of steps to increase production of domestic oil and natural gas.”
(“Romney Would Kill EPA’S GHG Authority, Bolster Energy Production,” EnergyWashington Week, 9/14/11)
Will Work To Remove Carbon Dioxide From The Clean Air Act’s Purview And Will End The War On Coal.
“The Clean Air Act ‘was not intended to control carbon-dioxide emissions, and is poorly tailored to that purpose,’ according to the plan, Believe In America: Mitt Romney’s Plan for Jobs and Economic Growth. ‘Romney will work to amend the Act and remove carbon dioxide from its purview.’ The former Massachusetts governor pledges to support oil and gas development in the United States and to end President Obama’s ‘war’ on the coal industry.”
(“Romney Would Kill EPA’S GHG Authority, Bolster Energy Production,” EnergyWashington Week, 9/14/11)
Would Require EPA To Take Costs Into Account At Every Stage Of The Regulatory Process.
“Romney says he will seek to amend the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts to ensure that cost is ‘taken properly into account at every stage in the regulatory process.’ His approach targets the two laws’ key provisions that require EPA to set health-based standards without consideration of costs. This has resulted in EPA setting standards that have proven increasingly controversial with industry and many lawmakers, though environmentalists, public health groups and their supporters say such standards are the cornerstone of successful environmental regulation.”
(“Romney Would Kill EPA’S GHG Authority, Bolster Energy Production,” EnergyWashington Week, 9/14/11)
Would Lightly Regulate Fracking – Deferring To State Regulations.
“Romney suggests he would take a light hand to regulating hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, the extraction technique that has opened up vast new supplies of natural gas, and would show deference to state regulatory efforts.”
(“Romney Would Kill EPA’S GHG Authority, Bolster Energy Production,” EnergyWashington Week, 9/14/11)
