Herman Cain: Green energy is a joke (Video and transcript)

Speaking at the October 22, 2011 Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Presidential Forum, Herman Cain suggested that the “right fuel” can jumpstart the nation’s economic recovery:

We have the greatest economic engine on the planet. It’s sputtering right now, because we have an economic crisis. Our economy is on life support, but when it receives the right fuel, no other nation on the planet can touch it.

 

Cain answered two questions about energy policy at the event, which was sponsored by the Iowa Energy Forum, the local arm of the American Petroleum Institute sponsored America’s Energy Forum.

Transcript of Herman Cain’s comments on energy independence and the EPA: 

Moderator: Thank you Mr. Cain. More and more Americans are coming to the realization that specific energy policies affect our jobs and our economy. What is your comprehensive plan to shape your future administration’s energy policy, and please include how this approach differs from our current administration.

Cain: The current administration doesn’t have a policy. We will have an energy independence strategy, because America has the resources to become energy independent.  

We have enough oil, coal, natural gas, shale oil. We have the resources to become energy independent. And my team is already working on putting that strategy together.

Because energy independence is not only an economic imperative, it is a national security imperative. Because we do not need to be dependent on foreign oil from countries that do not like us. So this is why we are going to become energy independent.

Now, the first barrier that some people like to say that we will have in doing that, is that the EPA, it won’t let us do that. Well, as President of the United States, I will make sure that the EPA has an attitude adjustment. They work for us.

Transcript of Herman Cain’s comments on energy efficient light bulbs and green energy:

Moderator: If you could reserve one energy related policy decision from the last three years, what would it be? And what would you have done differently?

Cain: If I could have reversed one related energy policy over the last three years, what would it have been?

I would have allowed the American people to decide what kind of light bulbs they want to put in their homes. America believes in choice.

Green energy is a joke.

You ought to be able to pick what kind of light bulb you want. That’s why we call this Faith and Freedom Coalition.

 

Complete video of the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Presidential Forum is available on C-Span:

http://www.c-span.org/Events/GOP-Candidates-Talk-Faith-and-Freedom-in-Iowa/10737424895/

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