Quote:

---

1.Is climate change a real problem – and is it manmade?

In his 2010 book, "No Apology: The Case for American Greatness," former Massachusetts Governor Romney said that he believed that climate change is occurring, and that humans have a role in causing it. "The reduction in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore." At a June 3, 2011, town meeting in Manchester, N.H., he said: "I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer.... and that humans contribute to that."

But responding to a question in Pittsburgh just four months later, Romney said: "My view is that we don't know what's causing climate change on this planet. And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us."

In contrast, Mr. Obama told world leaders at a UN summit on climate change in 2009 that "the security and stability of each nation and all peoples – our prosperity, our health, and our safety – are in jeopardy." He added: "And the time we have to reverse this tide is running out.” Obama has held the position that climate change is caused by humans, especially by fossil energy burning, since at least his time in the US Senate

2. Cap and trade to regulate greenhouse gas emissions

As governor of Massachusetts, Romney backed a market-based plan to put a cap on carbon dioxide emissions and trade emission permits or credits. "This is a great thing for the commonwealth," Romney said in 2005 of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. "We can effectively create incentives to help stimulate a sector of the economy and at the same time not kill jobs."

But news reports soon began to appear saying Romney was cooling on the new regional pact. On Dec. 14, just prior to the pact's public unveiling, Romney rejected it. "He believes we should not spend trillions of dollars on job-killing measures like cap and trade," a spokesman for his presidential campaign, speaking on background, wrote in an e-mail.

Since becoming president, Obama has unambiguously backed federal cap-and-trade legislation that would use a market-style mechanism to ratchet down US emissions of greenhouse gases, especially on power plants

3. Has the EPA gone too far?

Obama has sought to stem greenhouse gas emissions through renewable energy investments, regulating power-plant emissions, boosting automobile fuel-efficiency standards, and permitting federal agencies to proceed with limits on emissions.

Despite strong GOP opposition in Congress, the White House allowed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to declare carbon-dioxide emissions a pollutant and to gradually regulate greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants under the Clean Air Act.

Today, Romney's website says little about climate change. But it does note that a President Romney would seek to change the Clean Air Act to "exclude carbon dioxide from its purview" rolling back the EPA's 2009 finding that greenhouse gases are a danger to public health and welfare. "I exhale carbon dioxide," Romney said last year, citing the EPA's efforts to regulate greenhouse-gas emissions. "I don't want those guys following me around with a meter to see if I'm breathing too hard."

Many Republicans in the 2012 campaign cycle are running on the theme that climate warming is a hoax and EPA regulations are job killers. Congressman Ryan voted for a 2011 bill that would have prevented the EPA from regulating greenhouse-gas pollution. The same year, he voted to block the Department of Agriculture from implementing its climate-protection program, to eliminate White House climate advisers, and to oppose light-bulb efficiency standards that curb carbon emissions.

In a recent major win on that point, the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled unanimously in June that the EPA had indeed lawfully determined that greenhouse-gas emissions pose a danger to public health and welfare.

4. War on coal?

GOP critics charge that the Obama administration's new regulations on carbon emissions amounts to a "war on coal" – an especially sensitive issue in Midwestern battleground states in the runup to November elections. Weeks of advertising by the Republican National Committee and Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. blamed Obama for electricity cost increases in the state and for mining industry layoffs.

“If you don't believe in coal, if you don't believe in energy independence for America, just say it,” Romney said, according to The Columbus Dispatch newspaper. "If you believe the whole answer for our energy needs is wind and solar, then say that."

In response, the Obama campaign cites gains in coal production under this administration. "Here in Ohio, coal production has increased 7 percent since Obama took office," the ad says, according to E&E Daily. "Ohio coal jobs are up 10 percent. Obama has also made one of America's largest investments ever in clean-coal technology."

---