Andrew Kaczynski reminds us of another great Mitt Romney moment, this one featuring the Mitt Romney of 2007 speaking a town hall about his views on energy policy. (I'm not yet sure exactly where the town hall was.)
The full transcript is below the fold but here are four things that jump out at me:
- Mitt Romney 2007 wanted tougher fuel efficiency regulations, especially on SUVs. "The CAFE requirements have not worked terribly well over the last 20 years as you know, in part because they haven’t applied to trucks and so Americans move more and more to trucks and SUVs," he said. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney 2012 has bashed every regulation in sight, even falsely accusing President Obama of banning incandescent lightbulbs in the name of energy efficiency.
- Mitt Romney 2007 liked high gas prices because he thought they'd lead to higher fuel efficiency. "I'm hopeful that with $3 gasoline being charged by Hugo Chavez and Ahmadinejad and Putin and others, that you’re going to see that Americans are going to slowly but surely move to vehicles that are far more fuel efficient," he said. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney 2012 has falsely accused President Obama of promising higher gas prices.
- Mitt Romney 2007 wanted a "public-private partnership" on energy efficiency. "I believe that one of the ways we do that is having a joint public-private partnership to invest in new technology related to fuel efficiency as well as new sources of energy," he said. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney 2012 has tried to exploit the Solyndra failure by saying public-private partnerships are attacks on free enterprise.
- Mitt Romney 2007 emphasized alternative and renewable fuels. "I believe that nuclear power, plug in cars, electric cars, battery technology may be a way of reducing our emissions. I also believe that all of the renewable resources, ethanol, biodiesel, cellulostic ethanol, wind power, solar power, we have a lot of sources that we can tap in to," he said. Meanwhile, Mitt Romney 2012 ignores alternative and renewable fuels, focusing his energy strategy on drill, baby, drill.
So the bottom line is Mitt Romney was once willing to share sane thoughts with the world ... but now that he's a 2012er and Barack Obama is president, Romney wouldn't be caught dead saying any of the same things. Obviously, Romney wants people to believe that the Mitt Romney with whom they agree is the real Romney. The problem is that when you have his campaign admitting they see his positions as an Etch-A-Sketch, it becomes clear the Real Romney is a cynical opportunist who is more interested in obtaining power than doing what he believes is the right thing.
Full transcript of Romney's remarks:
The questioner asked "I like getting off foreign oil. I like the reduction of the burden on greenhouse gasses in global warming. What can you do about automotive efficiency and would you consider mandates of some kind on automotive efficiency?"
And the answer is would I consider them, yeah. The CAFE requirements have not worked terribly well over the last 20 years as you know, in part because they haven’t applied to trucks and so Americans move more and more to trucks and SUVs. So the average fuel economy over the last, I think it’s been 20 years, has been almost flat.
And I’m hopeful that with $3 gasoline being charged by Hugo Chavez and Ahmadinejad and Putin and others, that you’re going to see that Americans are going to slowly but surely move to vehicles that are far more fuel efficient and you’ll see our manufacturers start to build on the basis of fuel efficiency. I sure hope that you’re going to see more and more hybrids and much better fuel economy.
But it’s a must. We have to make our automobiles far more fuel efficient. I’d love to see we’re gonna get up to 50 miles per gallon. The time will come, people will look back and say, “You’re kidding me, cars back then only got 25 miles to the gallon? You’re kidding!” We can do much, much better than that and I believe that one of the ways we do that is having a joint public-private partnership to invest in new technology related to fuel efficiency as well as new sources of energy.
I happen to think that liquefied coal may be a source for us if we can sequester the CO2, I believe that nuclear power, plug in cars, electric cars, battery technology may be a way of reducing our emissions. I also believe that all of the renewable resources, ethanol, biodiesel, cellulostic ethanol, wind power, solar power, we have a lot of sources that we can tap in to.