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

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

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

In NH, Rick Santorum Talks Climate change - Video and Transcript

Rick Santorum spoke at length about his views on climate change while responding to a voter's question at a January 4, 2012 town hall meeting in Belmont, NH.

His comments were caught on video by C-Span:

Transcript of Rick Santorum's climate change talk in Belmont, NH: 

Voter: I was wondering how you’ve integrated your financial policies with the findings of current climate change science.

Rick Santorum: The question is on how do I get my policies with climate change science.

I get asked this question a lot, and you look at the data and you can see some change in the climate.

But then again, pick a point in history where you haven’t seen a change in the climate.

The climate does change.

The question is, what is causing the climate to change.

And I think most scientists, in fact, I assume all scientists would agree there are a variety of factors that cause the climate change.

I don’t think any scientist in the world would suggest there isn’t a variety of factors, and I think the vast majority of scientists would say there’s probably a hundred factors that cause the climate to change.

And so why have we decided that this one particular factor, carbon dioxide, is in fact that tip of the tail that wags the entire dog. 

Why from a scientific point of view do we make the assertion that this is in fact what is the case when there is a whole lot of other factors out there that could be affecting it?

So, that’s the question.

Some people have very strong feelings that it is that. 

There are a lot of other people who don’t.

Here’s the question. 

Let’s even assume, for purposes of argument, not that I agree with it, but for purposes of argument, that they are right.

Then what would be a rational response?

Well, if you have a problem and you want to craft something, what should that thing that you’re crafting do?

Solve the problem.

Do any of the proposed solutions put forward by Al Gore and his friends do anything to solve the problem?

Even the scientists who support the theory will admit to you that it doesn’t do anything to solve the problem. 

So query, why support the solution, other than you may have some other agenda that may be in place here. 

Right? 

And let’s go back to what that agenda is. 

There’s a common theme that you should be hearing here.

They don’t trust you to allocate resources in a way that they believe is best, and so they want to have a system that forces you to do what they think you should do in running your business and your lives. 

Rick Santorum may want to pay a visit to the EPA website, where he will learn that scientists and policy makers have identified a number major greenhouse gases being emitted into the atmosphere by human activities, including methane, nitrous oxide, and flourinated gases.

Update: 

New Hampshire Primary 2012: Green's coverage of Rick Santorum's latest comments on climate change is making global news:

The Guardian - Elections 2012 Live With Richard Adams

Mother Jones - Santorum: Climate Change is a Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy

DeSmogBlog - Santorum Misrepresents Science Again

Treehugger - Rick Santorum is Beyond Confused About Climate Change

Rick Santorum hits Obama on cap and trade (Video)

Former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum took aim at President Barack Obama's support of cap and trade at the grand opening of his Iowa campaign headquarters in Urbanandale on Saturday, just two days before heading to New Hampshire for the second Republican presidential debate of the 2012 election cycle.

Transcript of Rick Santorum's comments on Obama, cap and trade:

I was mentioning to some people in the back, not only did he do Obamacare which is hurt in this economy. Not only did he do this huge stimulus package that just ballooned our debt and all it did was fund government and public employee unions. But I remind everybody that he also wanted to pass cap and trade.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Massachusetts came along, he would have passed cap and trade. That would have been an even bigger expansion and takeover of our economy. 

Video of Rick Santorum's comments on Obama, cap and trade 

Note: Cap and trade quote starts at 8:38

Rick Santorum shares disbelief in global warming

Former Pennsylvania Senator and 2012 GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum appeared on the Rush Limbaugh Show this week, where he shared his disbelief in anthropogenic global warming:

Rush Limbaugh:  And we're back, Rush Limbaugh here with Rick Santorum, Republican seeking the presidential nomination.  Mitt Romney in his announcement earlier this week in New Hampshire said, yes, he believes there is global warming, and, yes, he thinks human beings are contributing to it.  Do you?

Rick Santorum:  I believe the earth gets warmer, and I also believe the earth gets cooler, and I think history points out that it does that and that the idea that man through the production of CO2 which is a trace gas in the atmosphere and the manmade part of that trace gas is itself a trace gas is somehow responsible for climate change is, I think, just patently absurd when you consider all of the other factors, El Nino, La Nina, sunspots, you know, moisture in the air.  There's a variety of factors that contribute to the earth warming and cooling, and to me this is an opportunity for the left to create -- it's a beautifully concocted scheme because they know that the earth is gonna cool and warm.  It's been on a warming trend so they said, "Oh, let's take advantage of that and say that we need the government to come in and regulate your life some more because it's getting warmer," just like they did in the seventies when it was getting cool, they needed the government to come in and regulate your life because it's getting cooler.  It's just an excuse for more government control of your life, and I've never been for any scheme or even accepted the junk science behind the whole narrative.