Rick Perry opposes energy subsidies at Hampton Town Hall Meeting

Rick Perry laid out his opposition to federal government subsidies for the energy industry today at an early morning Town Hall Meeting held in Hampton, New Hampshire. 

Video and transcript of Perry's comments: 

Rick Perry: Let me talk about the energy industry for a moment, because that’s a big one and its where America really needs to be focused from the standpoint of how we get this country economically back working and in one of the fastest ways is in the energy industry.

Because Texas in the last decade became the leader in wind energy. We committed to using our state incentives. I believe if a state wants to use its resources in an incentive based way, that is that state’s call. But not the federal government. I don’t think the federal government should be involved in picking winners and losers in any industries.

So I want to talk about, you know there are subsidies that are in the energy industry today for ethanol production. There are tax breaks for the oil and gas industry. I feel comfortable that if you remove the onerous regulations that come out of all of these agencies. I can’t tell you what the cost is just of the EPA on the energy industry, but it is going to be substantial. And remove those regulations from the backs of those that are out there, trying to find the different sources of energy. And then let the marketplace decide which one of those or how many of those are going to be competitive or not.

I’ve got great faith that the farmers in the Midwest, some of the greatest in the world are going to do just fine.

I know for a fact that you go to the Pennsylvania - where they have the Marcellus Shale and allow them to safely produce that natural gas – that that is how America gets back to work. And it’s also how America becomes domestic energy independent. And by doing that we put this country back on track and back on track. 

Rick Perry talks manufacturing jobs at NH Town Hall

Rick Perry responded to a voter's question on how to bring manufacturing jobs back to the U.S. during an early morning Town Hall Meeting in Hampton, NH. In his response, Perry bashed the EPA and defended his record on the environment as Governor of Texas.

Video and transcript of Perry's remarks: 

>

Voter: Governor, when you go to Manchester later today you’ll see a lot of old red brick buildings along the Merrimack River. And if you go any of our towns, you’ll old brick buildings in the middle of the town. And in the old days they used to make things there. All of the things they used to in those buildings are now made in China and Indonesia and Taiwan and places like that. Is there any way you as president can get back those manufacturing jobs from those places back here?

Rick Perry: You just described on the great reasons that the over litigation, over taxation and over regulation in particular, in particular those last two, have driven so many driven so many of our countries – uh companies – off shore.

Just this week, the Chief Executive of Coca-Cola, one the great old venerable companies in this country made the statement that it was easier to do business in China than it was in America. Now think about that statement. That it is easier to do business in a communist country than it is in the United States? What have we let happen to this country?

And what he was talking about was the regulatory side of it. We’ve pushed so many of our businesses off shore because we allowed for activists in some form or fashion – and I would suggest to you that the EPA is one of the worst culprits.

Let me give you a great example. Texas cleaned up its air as well as any other state during the decade of the 2000’s. We reduced ozone down by 27 levels -down by 27 percent. Nitrogen oxide levels down by 58 percent. Those are real pollutants and we cleaned up our air. This is the air that our kids breathe. We did that.

But this federal government, this EPA came in to Texas in January and said, “We’re going to take over your air permitting process because we don’t like the way that you’re doing it,” in essence.

That will mean, at our comptroller’s estimate, the loss of 360,000 jobs. They will leave. They will go off shore.

Listen, we live on the Gulf of Mexico. I understand the importance of being able to drill safely there and making sure that we don’t put our environment in jeopardy. But we know how to do that.

Yes, from time to time there are accidents. But if we’re going to work on the concept of an accident free world, there will be no manufacturing in America anywhere, any time in to the future.

We have to be thoughtful, we’ll use science on how to protect our environment, but we have to get back to drilling for instance. And using our natural resources, whether it’s… it’s… I mean, whatever energy source it is needs to be freed up from over regulation out of Washington, D.C. And then let them compete for the free market.

Now I don’t care if it’s wind or if it’s solar or if it’s clean coal or whether it’s oil and gas. Whatever it may be, America has to get back working. And we’ve gotta get our energy industry as part of that – and a big part of that. Because if we do not, we’re continuing…

$450 billions dollars we send offshore every year to buy energy and a lot of that goes to countries that really don’t like us. 

Rick Perry talks global warming in Hampton, NH (Video and Transcript)

Rick Perry fielded yet another question about his position on global warming at a Town Hall Meeting in Hampton, NH this morning.

“You repute the National Academy of Science’s findings that fossil fuels contribute to global warming,” a voter reminded Perry. “I’m wondering where you are getting your science, apart from Nobel laureates who are electrical engineers.”

Here is a video and transcript of Rick Perry's response:

There is a substantial group of scientists out there who are skeptical about the ‘incontrovertible’ statements that global warming is due mainly to man’s involvement. What is true is that our temperatures have gone up and down for millennium. 

And the issue is this – should American jeopardize its economy with a cap and trade type of legislation and base it on science that is still not settled. 

Now I know there are a lot of scientists out there who say, “Oh, yes it is.” But when you have Nobel laureates who stand up along with other scientists and say, “You know, let’s not rush into this.” Because the fact is, China is going to be out there not involved in any agreement at all. India’s involved in no agreement at all from the standpoint of limiting those CO2 greenhouse gases. And we live in a big ball. And that emissions are going to impact the world. 

The issue is, are we as an America going to jeopardize the future of this country by putting into place a program that there are still enough skeptics in my book to stand with them and say, “You know what, I don’t believe that manmade global warming is settled in science enough for us to justify a economic impact on this country that could be devastating to the future.”

The question was a follow up to a similar one posed by a voter at Perry’s first Town Hall Meeting in New Hampshire, held in Derry on Friday. Perry mentioned, but did not identify by name, a Nobel laureate who supposedly shares his skepticism on climate. L.A. Times reporter Paul West writes that the Nobel prize winner in question is Ivar Giaver, who won the award in 1973 for his work on superconductors.