Republican presidential hopefuls pander to California on CO2 emissions
Filed under: Legislation and Policy
With the field of potential nominees to be the Republican candidate for president this year rapidly dwindling, the front runners at the moment are now hitting the most delegate-heavy states in preparation for next weeks "Super Tuesday" primaries. Twenty-one states will go to the polls next week including California where environmental concerns are one of the big issues. During a debate on CNN on Wednesday evening former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney and Senator John McCain both came out in favor of California's attempts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions. In December Romney held the opposite view, indicating that the federal government should be setting the limits for carbon emissions, a position in line with the domestic automakers. That however was before Michigan held its primary, which Romney won. It's not that McCain, Romney or any other candidate shouldn't support California's efforts. However, given their party's traditional recalcitrance on the issue, Romney in particular comes across as insincere at best. On air during the debate Romney agreed that states should be able to make their own decisions. Off-air when few people are likely to notice, the Romney campaign issued a statement that the federal government, not states, should set the limits.
[Source: Detroit News]











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-31-2008 @ 1:43PM
Mike Z said...
I'm sure the ABG bloggers will hold the Dems to the same standard (Like Obama's support for coal to liquids).
HAHAHAHAHAHAH!
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 2:01PM
1985 Gripen said...
You might not like McCain's positions on things but he rarely flip-flops. Romney is a better debater (he handily beat McCain last night) and a more slick politician than McCain, but at least McCain sticks by his principles, even when they're unpopular.
And I don't believe McCain's position is at all out of character with his party. As he explained during the debate he's a Federalist, believing states should govern themselves, not the federal government. So it's not out of character for a Republican to believe that the states should set their own regulations.
Romney was simply pandering to whomever it is politically popular at the time. Before the Michigan primary he was against California setting its own regulations, then during this debate in California he says on camera that he's for California setting its own regulations, then off-camera his people issues a little-noticed press release changing his position again. You can't trust this guy. He's smarmy. He should be selling used cars. :-)
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1-31-2008 @ 3:35PM
pkuhl said...
@Mike Z,
No worries, I will be speaking to Obama regarding electric cars. No more of this coal liquification nonsense.
Reply
1-31-2008 @ 3:51PM
Anne said...
I am a student and my diploma thesis is about the new idea of hybrid-cars. It´s a current and exciting topic. I would be glad if you could tell me what you think about hybrid-cars. Even if you don't know anything about it.
This is my short questionnaire:
http://cmc.psych.uni-goettingen.de/wsg/index.php?sCode=005962f161b15fc8
Thank you for helping me.
Anne
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1-31-2008 @ 6:03PM
1985 Gripen said...
I wish I had kept my TiVo copy of the debate last night to refer back to, but I believe in his list of politically-correct eco-technologies he supposedly supports Romney also mentioned coal gasification technology. But don't worry. I'm sure today he's against it. If you don't like what Romney says one day, just wait until the next. :-)
He did mention "clean coal with carbon sequestration" technology but I thought I remember reading that while this sounded like a great idea for a while it's becoming increasingly less attractive and practically nowhere is the process in production. Am I wrong?
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1-31-2008 @ 11:58PM
kballs said...
Republican politicians: "I support state's rights [to ban gay marriage, give corporations more rights than people, etc., but I don't support state's rights to legalize gay marriage, limit the rights of corporations, or limit pollution]."
Democratic politicians: "I support state's rights [to legalize gay marriage, limit corporate rights, and limit pollution, but I don't support state's rights to ban gay marriage or give corporations more rights than people, etc.]."
Same steaming pile of BS, different day.
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2-01-2008 @ 12:33AM
Earl said...
Has anyone checked to see if this sets a record for the fastest Flip-Flop in political history? Man, this guy is spineless.
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2-01-2008 @ 1:02AM
MikeW said...
Romney is no statesman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeP5A5cczqk
There was one person on the stage who speaks straight, and it wasn't Anderson Cooper.
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2-01-2008 @ 9:55AM
Tim said...
Kballs, you are referring to the NeoCons who are just big federal government liberal wolves dressed up in conservative sheep clothing hunting Sheeple Votes. True conservatives obey the Constitution!
The Democrats ALSO believe in COMPLETE FEDERAL CONTROL and will continue spending over $1 TRILLION each year just to maintain a global US empire instead of paying off the debt and fixing OUR country.
The only REAL conservative in the race is RON PAUL because he believes that ALL the matters you mentioned are NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT'S BUSINESS and should be left up to the States, or to the people as the 10th Amendment commands.
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2-04-2008 @ 1:39AM
ronal said...
Vomit
Mitt is a Flip flopper
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