Romney in Rochester
May 30th, 2007 by Carbon Coalition
Yesterday I had the chance to see Gov. Romney speak at the BIA National Leaders Forum in Rochester. He began by stating that we’ve reached a critical time for our country and we need to develop strategies to overcome many of the challenges we face today–challenges such as overspending in DC, using too much oil, immigration, education, etc. I was fortunate to ask one of the audience questions, and I inquired how he plans to address the issue of global warming. About a month ago during one of his visits to Portsmouth he was asked the same question. Here’s how he responded then:
“We must become independent from foreign sources of oil…developing alternative sources of energy like biodiesel, ethanol…If there is a carbon cap, I’ll make sure it’s global and not just domestic.”
And his latest response:
“You’re seeing the climate get warmer or climate change is occurring and I believe that human activity is contributing to that. I don’t know what proportion of the change is due to human activity but my policy is to adopt what I refer to as a ‘no regrets policy’–to take action that allows us to become more energy efficient and ultimately become energy independent as a nation.”
Romney explained, we would see a number of benefits: 1) reduced dependence on foreign oil from “people who don’t like us”; 2) about a billion dollars a day would stay in the US economy rather than go to other countries; 3) reduced greenhouse gas emissions. Romney wants to see all efforts carried out on a “global basis” because he doesn’t think it’s “productive for us to work solely on a unilateral basis to reduce our greenhouse gases, if we have countries like China and India.”
“So this ‘no regrets policy’ says energy independence, oh and as well reduces our CO2 emissions.” (Listen to his entire response here.)
I followed up with Romney after his speech (The Today Show captured this moment, see above) and I asked him his thoughts on a cap and trade system or a carbon tax. “That’s something we’re looking into” he replied.
Let us know what you think about Romney’s answers.
In other news…last week Sen. John Edwards was in Bartlett. He called global warming a “crisis of leadership,” something that he believes he could positively affect as president. He explained “global warming is a crisis now, not 10 years from now. Global warming is already causing a serious lack of food and drinking water, as well as political upheaval and wars over resources.” And, staying on his message, he used his go-to line “America [needs to be] patriotic about something other than war.”
