Gingrich Called For Incentivizing Pollution Control.
Quote: “Now this is an agency out of touch with reality which I believe is incorrigible and you need a new agency that is practical, has commonsense, uses economic factors and in the case of — of pollution actually incentives change, doesn’t just punish it.”
(MSNBC, “GOP Presidential Debate,” 1/8/12)
Supports Federal Government Helping Renewable Power
At a meeting of manufacturers in Iowa, Newt Gingrich offered “a more full-throated defense of the federal government helping with renewable energy.” According to the report, “he also did not rule out tax credits for renewable energy.”
Quote: “If you’re talking about basic research the U.S. government is immensely important,” arguing that “it’s legitimate to have biases for what you want” in production and that did not count as picking winners and losers in the marketplace.
(Cameron Joseph, “GOP Candidates Spilt on Energy Tax Breaks at Iowa Forum,” The Hill, The Ballot Box, 11/1/11)
Would Create New Agency to Balance Environmental Outcomes with Concerns About Jobs and Energy Costs
Quote: “Replace the Environmental Protection Agency, which has become a job-killing regulatory engine of higher energy prices, with an Environmental Solutions Agency that would use incentives and work cooperatively with local government and industry to achieve better environmental outcomes while considering the impact of federal environmental policies on job creation and the cost of energy.”
(Newt Gingrich 2012, http://www.newt.org/solutions/american-energy-plan, Accessed 10/11/11)
Said EPA Bureaucrats Are Arrogant And Out Of Touch With Reality.
Quote: “Look, when you have bureaucrats at EPA who issue rules about dust on dirt roads, you can talk to any person in Iowa of either party and they’ll tell you, this is — this is a level of arrogance and a level of being out of touch with reality that is amazing.”
(PBS’ Newshour, “PBS ‘NewsHour’ Interview with Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), Republican Presidential Candidate,” 9/29/11)
Quote: “All You Have To Do Is Imagine The Bureaucrat Who Rides On Metro To Get To An Air-Conditioned High-Rise Office Building To Sit In The Middle Of Washington Imagining Dust And Then Writes A Dust Regulation Based On Zero Understanding Of Farming And Zero Understanding Of America Beyond The Beltway And You Know Why We Should Replace The EPA.”
(Republican Presidential Candidates Deliver Remarks At Iowa Faith & Freedom Dinner, Transcript, 10/22/11)
Said He Would Replace EPA with New Agency
“Gingrich Said He Would Replace The Environmental Protection Agency With An ‘Environment Solutions Agency,’ Trim The Number Of Federal Departments From 15 To Nine, And Shift Many Of The Department Of Transportation’s Responsibilities To State And Local Governments.”
(Bill Reed, “Gingrich Presents Glimpses Of Road Map In Doylestown,” Philadelphia Inquirer, 9/28/11)
Quote: “If You Look At The EPA’s Record, It Is Increasingly Radical. It’s Increasingly Imperious. It Doesn’t Cooperate, It Doesn’t Collaborate And It Doesn’t Take Into Account Economics.”
(MSNBC, “GOP Presidential Debate,” 1/8/12)
Would Have The New “Department Of Environmental Solutions” Work Collaboratively With Local Governments, Possibly Letting States Manage Their Own Goals.
“Gingrich, for instance, speaks of having the agency — he’d rename it the Department of Environmental Solutions — work ‘collaboratively’ with local governments. That hints at a popular suggestion to allow states to experiment with their own approaches for achieving mandated goals, just as they did during the 1990s welfare reforms that Gingrich helped push through Congress.”
(Bill Steiden, “EPA In GOP Crosshairs,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 9/18/11)
