Obama, Romney spar on climate, energy
Oct 31 - USA TODAY
He pushed to make homes and businesses more energy efficient. He
offered government incentives for renewable power and, early in his
administration, tried to tackle climate change with fees on excessive
corporate emitters of greenhouse gases.
President Obama? Well, it may sound like him, but it's GOP
presidential candidate Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts
-- a blue state with a Democratic-led legislature -- from 2003 to 2007.
The two men have fairly similar governing records on energy and
environmental issues. Their campaign rhetoric, however, has differed on
just about everything except boosting the nation's production of oil and
natural gas.
Obama says the United States, despite a jump in oil and gas produced
during his administration, cannot drill its way to energy independence.
So he touts his push to double fuel economy for new cars and light
trucks by 2025, increase solar and wind energy, and eliminate $4 billion
in annual tax breaks for oil and gas companies.
Romney, who says the key to his goal of North American energy
independence by 2020 is more drilling, favors those tax breaks. He
opposes tax credits for large wind producers, which Obama says he'll
renew so they don't expire Dec. 31.
Romney supports the entire Keystone XL oil pipeline from Canada to
Texas, the northern half of which Obama has so far declined to approve.
"There's a big difference" between the two candidates, says David
Kreutzer, an energy expert at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative
think tank. "There's an anti-fossil fuel thrust with this administration
that would change" under Romney.
"When it comes to our energy future, voters have a clear choice,"
agrees Heather Taylor-Miesle, director of the NRDC Action Fund, an
environmental advocacy group. "Romney's fossil-fuels-first approach is
nothing more than drill, baby, drill -- with a nice haircut," she
writes, adding that Obama has supported oil drilling to an extent that
her group finds "excessive."
Romney as governor
What puzzles some analysts, in comparing the two candidates, is
Romney's past. His record as governor differs markedly from his
presidential campaign positions.
"There's a lot of similarity" between Romney's record as governor and
Obama's as president, says Kateri Callahan of the Alliance to Save
Energy, a non-profit group that advocates energy efficiency. She
applauds both men for the work they've done.
"He (Romney) really did drive energy efficiency into the
Massachusetts economy," Callahan says, noting he backed tax credits --
up to $600 for individuals -- for homes and businesses to make
efficiency upgrades.
She says he also supported efficiency and renewable energy projects,
investing $15 million of state money into the Massachusetts Green Energy
Fund LP, a venture-capital firm that helped finance about a dozen
companies. Three of those companies have since gone under, including
solar panel manufacturer Konarka, which received $1.5 million.
Romney, who once stood in front of a coal plant and said it "kills
people," launched a Climate Protection Plan in 2004 to reduce industrial
greenhouse gas emissions as part of -- in his words -- a "no regrets"
policy toward climate change.
His staff drafted the country's first interstate cap-and-trade system
to cut emissions, known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or
RGGI. By the time RGGI was ready for his signature in late 2005, he had
announced he wouldn't seek re-election, prompting speculation he might
run for president. He declined to sign it, citing potential costs to
state businesses.
Romney struck a balance as governor, says Brian Gilmore of the
Associated Industries of Massachusetts, the state's largest organization
of employers. "He certainly wasn't anti-environment, but he was
concerned about potential regulations and their impact on employers,"
says Gilmore, who was glad that Romney walked away from RGGI.
His gubernatorial record is "kind of a tale of two stories," says
David Jenkins of ConservAmerica, a GOP environmental group. He says
Romney was very pro-environment in his first two years but later got
"cold feet" on some initiatives such as RGGI. "He now sounds more like
Rush Limbaugh than Ronald Reagan," says Jenkins, adding he won't vote
for him.
Obama's record
Yet Jenkins says he also won't support Obama, citing disappointment
that Obama didn't push hard enough to win Congress' approval of federal
cap-and-trade legislation. The bill passed the House but faltered in the
Senate.
Obama has a mixed record with environmentalists. He's been criticized
for pulling back an EPA proposal to limit ozone emissions linked to
smog, approving the southern half of the Keystone XL pipeline and
failing to create new wilderness areas that would be protected from
development.
They've lauded his support of renewable energy, which has doubled its
U.S. production since 2008, his mandate for doubling vehicle
fuel-efficiency and his EPA rules limiting carbon-dioxide emissions from
new power plants, including coal-fired ones.
These rules have caused Obama heartburn on the campaign trail.
Campaigning in coal country, where the president's popularity has
plummeted, Romney has blamed Obama's EPA for putting coal miners out of
work.
"The regulations may have long-term impact" on the coal industry, but
recent mine closures are due more to the plunge in prices for natural
gas that make coal less cost-competitive, says Ted Boettner, executive
director of the West Virginia Center on Budget and Policy, a
non-partisan research group.
(c) Copyright 2012 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.
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