Mitt Romney says he accepts that humans are a cause of climate change, but he's not willing to take any government actions to curb emissions of greenhouse gases. Now he has walked that back claiming that CO2 isn't a pollutant that harms the environment.
Romney Backtracks: ‘I Don’t Think Carbon Is A Pollutant’
ThinkProgress filed this report from Derry, New Hampshire.
It’s getting close to impossible to track Mitt Romney’s vacillating position on global warming. Appearing in Derry, New Hampshire, the Republican presidential candidate reversed last month’s stance on fighting greenhouse gases, telling a questioner that he didn’t think carbon emissions should be regulated as a pollutant:
QUESTIONER: Will you continue to support the EPA’s air quality standards that will protect all Americans from the burning of coal?
ROMNEY: I believe we should keep our air and our water clean. And that we don’t want to have pollutants that are interfering with our health and damaging the ability of our children to enjoy good health. So no question we have to have standards that improve the quality of our air. And I support reasonable standards. … Do I support the EPA? In much of its mission yes, but in some of its mission no. The EPA getting into carbon footprints, and… [APPLAUSE] I think we may have made a mistake, we have made a mistake is what I believe, in saying that the EPA should regulate carbon emissions. I don’t think that was the intent of the original legislation, and I don’t think carbon is a pollutant in the sense of harming our bodies. We can agree to disagree … My view is that the EPA getting into carbon and regulating carbon has gone beyond the original intent of the legislation. I do believe we should reduce the pollutants that harm our health.
ThinkProgress’ Travis Waldron recorded the candidate at last Thursday’s town hall. Watch it:
Claiming that CO2 won't harm our bodies is like claiming the act of turning a car's ignition key in isolation won't harm our bodies, never mind the fact that this car is parked in a garage with all the doors closed and locked.
Mitt Romney's intellectual dishonesty to garner votes in the Republican Primary shows his willingness to subordinate truth, to his pursuit of power by courting his Party's radical wing.