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