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.

 

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