Rick Santorum thanks god for hydrofracking at Koch sponsored CPAC

Rick Santorum’s used his speech at CPAC 2012 to again reject the idea of anthropogenic global warming, as well as dismiss concerns about hydrofracking.

This year’s Conservative Political Action Conference was sponsored in part by fossil fuel industry giant Koch Industries, along with a slew of organizations supported by billionaire brothers David and Charles Koch, including the American Legislative Exchange Council, Americans for Prosperity, and Charles Koch Institute.

Transcript of Rick Santorum's comments on global warming and hydrofracking at CPAC 2012:

Of course, one of the favorite things of the left is to use your sentimentality, your proper understanding and belief that we are stewards of this Earth, and that we have a responsibility to hand off a beautiful Earth to the next generation.

And so they use that, and they’ve used it in the past, to try to scare you into supporting radical ideas on the environment.

They tried it with this idea, this politicization of science called man-made global warming.

And President Obama, you may remember, tried to pass cap and trade and tried to get control not only of the healthcare system, but of the energy industry, the manufacturing industry. 

Another two big sectors of this economy, and using this façade of man-made global warming. 

Well I stood up and fought against those things. 

Why?

Because they will destroy the very foundation of prosperity in our country.

You look at any country in the world and you look at their energy consumption and the cost of energy, and their quality of life, their standard of living.

The more energy consumption, the higher the standard of living.

That’s just the bottom line.

We need an America, if we’re going to fuel a great and vibrant economy, we need affordable energy.

And this administration has gone out and not only has it attacked us with cap and trade and global warming, but now that that has been thrown on the dustbin of history, now they’re going after hydrofracking.

Now, I come from Pennsylvania.

We’re doing a little bit of that in Pennsylvania, thank God.

And guess what?

Of course, now that we’re doing hydrofracking near the population centers, the boogie man comes out.

Ooh! Look at what it’s going to do to you. 

Do you know how many wells have been hydrofracked in the United States?

Oh, about seven or eight hundred thousand.

Where’s been all the noise?

Ladies and gentlemen, they scare you to intimidate you to trust them, and to give them more power.

We need someone who is going to go out on these big issues of the day and draw contrasts.

A full video of Rick Santorum's speech at CPAC 2012 can be found on C-Span.org

Newt Gingrich talks dinosaurs, climate change (Video)

Newt Gingrich fielded a question about climate change at the February 6, 2012 Colorado Energy Summit. The event was hosted by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and Consumer Energy Alliance, a group supported by BP and Exxon Mobil, two of the world's most notorious spillers of oil.

Here's a transcript of his response:

Question: I wonder, do you believe in human induced climate change?

Newt Gingrich: I believe we don’t know.

I am an amateur paleontologist.

The planet has changed its temperature a number of times.

Calista and I were at the field museum in Chicago at Labor Bay looking at dinosaurs from the Antarctic. 

If you look at the Antarctic today you’ll figure it must be a lot warmer when the dinosaurs were there.

What I’ve said in the past is I’m happy to take prudent measures that aren’t very expensive, so if we can find ways to have relatively inexpensive, safe nuclear power, I am for it.

The fact that Iowa produces 20% of its  electricity from wind is fine.

I mean, there a lot of things you could do at the margin.

What I would not do is I would not turn power over to the bureaucracy to run the entire country.

I have always opposed cap and trade.

And I want to be clear, because many of you have seen it, or you'll see ads about it.

The ad I did with Nancy Pelosi is the dumbest single thing I have done in the past 5 or 6 years. 

Okay? It was just stupid, but I did not say at any point in that ad that I was in favor of cap and trade.

In fact, when Gore testified in favor of it, I testified against it the same day.

You can go to Newt.org and see the videotape of the testimony.

I always tell people, even if you thought it was true, that doesn’t mean the only answer is avoidance. 

You know, the Dutch have been faced with the ocean for a long time. 

They did not adopt an Al Gore approach of lowering the sea.

They built dikes.

So there are lots of ways to solve problems that don’t involve institutionalized stupidity. 

Video of Newt Gingrich's climate change remarks:

A complete video of Newt Gingrich's speech at the 2012 Colorado Energy Summit is available on C-Span.

Rick Santorum: Global warming a travesty of scientific research

Rick Santorum continued his attack on global warming at the February 6, 2012 Colorado Energy Summit. Held at the Colorado School of Mines, the event was hosted by the Colorado Oil and Gas Association and Consumer Energy Alliance, a group backed by a who's who of Big Oil companies, including BP and Exxon Mobil.  

Transcript of Rick Santorum's comments on global warming: 

The most important thing we need to do, which is what this administration has not done, which is to use sound science, not politicized science.

We have seen the politicization of science like we have never seen before in the recent years.

We saw it with global warming.

A absolute travesty of scientific research that was motivated by politics. 

Motivated by those who saw this as an opportunity to create a panic and crisis and for government to step in and even greatly and more control your life.

I can tell you, I for one never bought the hoax.

I for one understood, just from science, that there were a hundred factors that influence the climate, and to suggest that one minor factor of which man’s contribution is a minor factor in the minor factor is the determining ingredient in the sauce that affects the entire global warming and cooling is just absurd on its face.

And yet, we had politicians running to the ramparts.

Unfortunately politicians who happen to be running for the Republican nomination for President, who bought into man-made global warming and bought into cap and trade. 

Both Congressman Gingrich and Governor Romney, both supported the idea of man made global warming and in fact cap and trade.

I never did, and unless the science is such that it is a heck of a lot better than what we see today, I won’t. 

Video of Rick Santorum's global warming remarks: 

A full video of Rick Santorum's speech at the 2012 Colorado Energy Summit can be found on C-Span

Mitt Romney talks global warming, drugs in Miama, FL - Video

Mitt Romney first praised youth for caring about global warming, then blamed young people for the nation’s illegal drug problem, during his January 27, 2012 speech to members of the Hispanic Leadership Network in Miami, Florida:

“We have got to do a much better job communicating to our children in this country, whether they are Hispanic or non-Hispanics, that drugs are causing deaths around the world.”

“Our young people have a great deal of concern. They’re a very humanitarian people. They’re concerned about issues like global warming and things of that nature, and they’re concerned about humanity.”

“I hope they understand that if they take one of these drugs that are being smuggled into this country, that they are partially responsible for deaths.”

“I want them to understand the tens of thousands of people who are being killed by virtue of drug use in this country.”


“It’s time for the United States of America to take responsibility for the pain and suffering and torture and murder that’s going on throughout Latin America.”

“We are not a good example in this regard, and that much change. If I’m president, I will campaign in a very aggressive way to our young people. Stop taking drugs because you are killing people.” 

Rick Santorum: Global warming hoax

Rick Santorum believes his consistent denial of global warming makes him the most qualified Republican presidential candidate to take on President Barack Obama in the 2012 election.

“Cap-and-trade -- both of them bought into the global warming hoax, bought into the cap-and-trade, top-down control of our energy and manufacturing sector,” the former Pennsylvania Senator said of current GOP frontrunners Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney during last night’s CNN Florida Republican Presidential Debate.

  

It was the only time global warming was mentioned during the debate.

Santorum delivered a rambling explanation of his views on climate science and carbon emissions during a January 6, 2012 town hall meeting with voters in Belmont, NH. A transcript and video of his comments can be found here:

http://newhampshireprimary.blogspot.com/2012/01/in-nh-rick-santorum-talks-climate.html

Obama's 2012 State of the Union Address to Focus on Clean Energy

Expect clean energy to be one focus of President Barack Obama’s 2012 State of the Union address tonight - January 24, 2012 - his third since taking office in January 2009.

In a YouTube video posted on Saturday, Obama previewed his “blueprint for an economy that’s built to last.”

Among the things Obama plans to talk about during his 2012 State of the Union address:  

• American manufacturing with more good jobs and more products stamped ‘Made in America’
• American energy fueled by homegrown and alternative energy sources

President Obama has made clean energy and the environment a major sub-theme of his reelection campaign ever since announcing his decision to turn down the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline last week. It’s a theme that is prominent in his campaign’s first TV ad of the 2012 election.

“Secretive oil billionaires attacking President Obama with ads fact checkers say are ‘not tethered to the facts’ while independent watchdogs call this President’s record on ethics ‘unprecedented’,” the ad states. “And America’s clean energy industry: 2.7 million jobs and expanding rapidly. For the first time in 13 years, our dependence on foreign oil is below 50 percent.”

The 2.7 million jobs number comes from a 2011 Brookings Institute report, Sizing the Clean Economy: A National and Regional Green Jobs Assessment. Factcheck.org correctly notes many of these green jobs were around before Obama entered the White House, while acknowledging the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 “no doubt goosed clean energy employment.” Of course, what researchers Brookings Institute actually counted were jobs across the entire green economy, not just the clean energy sector. Their most impressive finding was that the wider clean economy employs more workers than the fossil fuel industry. 

Getting specific, President Obama takes credit for supporting more than 224,000 clean energy jobs in an online posting celebrating his decision to reject the Keystone XL oil pipeline.

“And the idea, as some in Washington have tried to suggest, that building a pipeline is the ultimate answer to the question of American energy security and job creation is nothing more than a pipe dream,” Heather Zichal, Deputy Assistant to the President for Energy and Climate Change, wrote in a recent op-ed published in USA Today. "The truth is that just two of the Administration’s programs – the DOE Loan Guarantee Program and the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards – will create more than 10 times the amount of jobs generated by the Keystone XL pipeline, which will only generate a few thousand temporary jobs."

During his 2011 State of the Union address, Obama talked extensively about clean energy:

This is our generation’s Sputnik moment. Two years ago, I said that we needed to reach a level of research and development we haven’t seen since the height of the Space Race.  And in a few weeks, I will be sending a budget to Congress that helps us meet that goal.  We’ll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean energy technology -– (applause) -- an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people.

Already, we’re seeing the promise of renewable energy. Robert and Gary Allen are brothers who run a small Michigan roofing company. After September 11th, they volunteered their best roofers to help repair the Pentagon. But half of their factory went unused, and the recession hit them hard. Today, with the help of a government loan, that empty space is being used to manufacture solar shingles that are being sold all across the country. In Robert’s words, “We reinvented ourselves.” 

That’s what Americans have done for over 200 years: reinvented ourselves. And to spur on more success stories like the Allen Brothers, we’ve begun to reinvent our energy policy. We’re not just handing out money. We’re issuing a challenge. We’re telling America’s scientists and engineers that if they assemble teams of the best minds in their fields, and focus on the hardest problems in clean energy, we’ll fund the Apollo projects of our time.

At the California Institute of Technology, they’re developing a way to turn sunlight and water into fuel for our cars. At Oak Ridge National Laboratory, they’re using supercomputers to get a lot more power out of our nuclear facilities. With more research and incentives, we can break our dependence on oil with biofuels, and become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015.  

We need to get behind this innovation. And to help pay for it, I’m asking Congress to eliminate the billions in taxpayer dollars we currently give to oil companies. I don’t know if -- I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but they’re doing just fine on their own.  So instead of subsidizing yesterday’s energy, let’s invest in tomorrow’s.

Now, clean energy breakthroughs will only translate into clean energy jobs if businesses know there will be a market for what they’re selling. So tonight, I challenge you to join me in setting a new goal: By 2035, 80 percent of America’s electricity will come from clean energy sources. 

Some folks want wind and solar. Others want nuclear, clean coal and natural gas. To meet this goal, we will need them all -- and I urge Democrats and Republicans to work together to make it happen.  

Watch video of President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address live online at:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/state-of-the-union-2012

Barack Obama’s EPA speech – Video and Transcript

U.S. President Barack Obama paid a visit to the EPA yesterday, where he talked at length about the environment as Republican presidential candidates spent their final day campaigning here in New Hampshire before packing their bags and heading down to South Carolina. 

Transcript of Obama’s speech to the EPA:

Barack Obama:  Thank you!  Thank you, EPA!  (Applause.)  Thank you, everybody.  Thank you so much.  It is wonderful to see you.  It is great to see you.  Thank you, thank you. 

Now, everybody can have a seat.  I know Lisa is making you guys all stand up.  (Laughter.)  But you can all relax. 

It is wonderful to be here with all of you.  Thank you so much for all the great work you do.  I want to first acknowledge your outstanding Administrator, Lisa Jackson.  (Applause.)  She has done an extraordinary job leading this agency.  But here’s what I want all of you to know:  Not only is she good on policy, not only is she tough and able to present the EPA’s mission so effectively to the public, but she also has your back.  (Applause.)  She is an advocate on behalf of all the people who work so hard here at the EPA.  And so you should know that your boss loves you, even if she doesn’t always show it, I don’t know.  (Laughter.)

The main reason I’m here is simple:  I just want to say thank you.  I want to say thank you to each and every one of you, because the EPA touches on the lives of every single American every single day.  You help make sure that the air we breathe, the water we drink, the foods we eat are safe.  You protect the environment not just for our children but their children.  And you keep us moving towards energy independence. 

And it is a vital mission.  Over the past three years, because of your hard work, we’ve made historic progress on all these fronts.  Just a few weeks ago, thanks to the hard work of so many of you, Lisa and I was able to announce new common-sense standards to better protect the air we breathe from mercury and other harmful air pollution.  And that was a big deal.  (Applause.)  And part of the reason it was a big deal was because, for over 20 years, special interest groups had successfully delayed implementing these standards when it came to our nation’s power plants.  And what we said was:  “Enough.”  It’s time to get this done.  

And because we acted, we’re going to prevent thousands of premature deaths, thousands of heart attacks and cases of childhood asthma. 

There are families that are going to be directly impacted in a positive way because of the work that you do.  Because you kept fighting -- and some of you have been fighting this fight for a long time, long before I was here and long before Lisa was here.  And so your tenacity and stick-to-itness is making a difference. 

Because of you, across the board, we’re cutting down on acid rain and air pollution.  We’re making our drinking water cleaner and safer.  We’re creating healthier communities.  But that’s not all.  Safeguarding our environment is also about strengthening our economy.  I do not buy the notion that we have to make a choice between having clean air and clean water and growing this economy in a robust way.  I think that is a false debate.  (Applause.)

Think about it:  We established new fuel economy standards, a historic accomplishment that is going to slash oil consumption by about 12 billion barrels, dramatically reduces pollution that contributes to climate change, and saves consumers thousands of dollars at the pump, which they can then go spend on something else.

As part of the Recovery Act, you cleaned up contaminated sites across the country, which helped to rid neighborhoods of environmental blight while putting Americans back to work. 

We don’t have to choose between dirty air and dirty water or a growing economy.  We can make sure that we are doing right by our environment and, in fact, putting people back to work all across America.  That’s part of our mission.

When we put in place new common-sense rules to reduce air pollution, we create new jobs building and installing all sorts of pollution-control technology.  When we put in place new emissions standards for our vehicles, we make sure that the cars of tomorrow are going to be built right here in the United States of America, that we’re going to win that race.

When we clean up our nation’s waterways, we generate more tourists for our local communities.  So what’s good for the environment can also be good for our economy. 

Now, that doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be some tensions.  That doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be legitimate debates that take place.  That doesn’t mean that it’s not important for every single one of us to think about how can we make sure that we are achieving our goals in the smartest way possible, in the most efficient ways possible, in the least bureaucratic ways possible, in the clearest ways possible.  That’s also part of our mission.

There’s not a federal agency that can’t get better and be smarter in accomplishing our mission, and we have an obligation every single day to think about how can we do our business a little bit better.  How can we make sure the taxpayers are getting every dime’s worth that they’re paying in order to achieve these important common goals that we have? 

But I believe we can do it, and you’ve shown me that we can do it over these last three years.  So I could not be prouder of the work that you all do every single day as federal employees.  I know the hours can be long.  I know that sometimes spending time getting these policies right means less time at home than you’d like, and you’re missing birthday parties, or you’re missing a soccer game, and the spouse is not happy with you.  I know a little bit about that sometimes.  (Laughter.)  I know these jobs are demanding.

But I also know what compelled you to enter public service in the first place -- and that’s the idea that you could make a difference; that you could leave behind a planet that is a little cleaner, a little safer than the one we inherited.

And I have to tell you that part of why I get excited when I see some of the work that you’re doing is because our next generation is so much more attuned to these issues than I was when I was growing up.  I can tell you when I sit down and I talk to my kids, probably the area where they have the most sophisticated understanding of policy is when it comes to the environment.  They understand that the decisions we make now are going to have an impact on their lives for many years to come.  And their instincts are right.  So your mission is vital. 

And just think of what this agency has been able to do over the last four decades.  There’s so many things we now take for granted.  When I hear folks grumbling about environmental policy, you almost want to do a Back to the Future -- (laughter) -- kind of reminder of folks of what happens when we didn’t have a strong EPA.  The year before President Nixon created the EPA, the Cuyahoga River was so dirty from industrial pollution and oil slicks that it literally caught on fire.  In my hometown, the Chicago River -- you probably could not find anything alive in there -- (laughter) -- four decades ago.  Now it’s thriving -- to the benefit of the city.  Today, because of your work, 92 percent of Americans have access to clean water that meets our national health standards.

Before the EPA was created, our cars were spewing harmful lead pollution into the air, with all sorts of impacts, especially on children.  Today, because of your work, air pollution is down by more than half, and lead pollution is down more than 90 percent from a generation ago.

So all of you, and all of those who served before you, have made a difference.  Our environment is safer because of you.  Our country is stronger because of you.  Our future is brighter because of you.  And I want you to know that you’ve got a President who is grateful for your work and will stand with you every inch of the way as you carry out your mission to make sure that we’ve got a cleaner world.  (Applause.) 

So, thank you.  God bless you.  God bless the United States of America.  Thank you.  (Applause.)

Video of Barack Obama’s EPA speech: