Newt Gingrich is going to new lengths to quash criticism by
climate skeptics. A new page on Newt2012.org seeks to
“Answer the Attacks” on the former House Speaker, including his apparent
flip-flop on the issues of global warming and cap and trade.
According to the new webpage:
Newt does not believe there is a settled scientific
conclusion about whether industrial development has dramatically contributed to
a warming of the atmosphere.
Newt absolutely opposes “cap and trade” as well as any
system of taxing carbon emissions. He testified before Congress against it in
2009 and led a grassroots effort while the Chairman of American Solutions to
block its passage in the House and Senate.
Newt believes that cap and trade would kill hundreds of
thousands of American jobs, cause electricity and fuel prices to skyrocket, and
make America poorer. In contrast, Gingrich believes the best way to
protect the environment is through markets, incentives, and entrepreneurs, who
quite often are deploying innovative new technologies.
As for the question of whether industrial development has
dramatically contributed to a warming of the atmosphere, Newt has noted there
is no settled scientific conclusion. Many scientists believe it is the
case. Others do not. But this unsettled scientific question has
nothing to do with the best approach to protecting our environment, which is
always markets, incentives, and entrepreneurs creating better and more
efficient products and services.
In “Answering the Attacks”, Newt Gingrich also makes a half
hearted attempt to explain his 2007 television ad with Nancy
Pelosi, which was sponsored by Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection:
Q: So why did Newt do the ad with Nancy Pelosi in 2007
calling for action to address climate change?
Newt does not believe there is a settled scientific
conclusion about whether industrial development has dramatically contributed to
a warming of the atmosphere.
Through his entire career, Newt has supported pro-market,
pro-entrepreneur, innovative solutions to our environmental challenges, which
he believes are superior to the liberal pro-bureaucracy, pro-tax,
pro-regulation approach to the environment.
Newt believes that conservatives cannot be absent from the
conversation about the environment and instead that conservatives must offer
and explain why conservative solutions are better. Unfortunately, the attempt
to get that message out through the ad with Nancy Pelosi failed. On
November 8, 2011, Newt told FOX News’ Bret Baier that doing that commercial
with Pelosi was “probably the dumbest single thing I’ve ever done”.
Newt will continue to oppose the Democrats’ destructive
cap-and-trade and carbon tax proposals, continue to support expanded domestic
oil and gas drilling, and continue to fight for a fundamental replacement of
the job-killing Environmental Protection Agency with an Environmental Solutions
Agency.
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| Photo by Gage Skidmore |
