https://bigleaguepolitics.com/renegade-republican-mitt-romney-comes-out-in-favor-of-carbon-taxes/
By Shane Trejo
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who claims he is no longer is apart of the Republican Party establishment in the age of Donald Trump, is demonstrating his new “renegade” status by pushing for carbon taxes to cripple the U.S. economy.
The AP reported: Romney said that he believes climate change is happening and human activity is a significant contributor…Romney discussed the benefits of a carbon tax, a fee based on each ton of carbon dioxide emissions produced by fossil fuels that some major oil companies have adopted. He suggested a portion of the tax revenue could go to coal workers in rural communities that would suffer financially from the move to cleaner power alternatives.
“In some respects, (by speaking with newer conservatives), I’ll be able to make inroads with some of the young people coming along,” he told the Sutherland Institute in Salt Lake City, claiming that he was reaching young people by preaching about the evils of global warming.
Rom-Gore?
“I’m not willing to sit by if there are major sectors that are losers … and watch people and communities suffer because of that change,” he added.
Romney outlined his support for cap-and-trade policies during his speech. He wants to place a fee for each ton of carbon dioxide emissions that businesses release into the atmosphere. He believes some of the tax money could go to provide federal welfare to coal workers who are put out of jobs under his proposal.
Meanwhile, President Trump is bringing the industry back by shredding regulations that prevent coal mines from providing jobs to rural, poverty-stricken Appalachian states. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reversed his predecessor’s rules last month that were holding back the coal industry, allowing states to set their own emissions standards regarding power plants.
“We are gathered here today because the American public elected a president with a better approach,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in July. “One of the President’s first acts in office was to issue an executive order to promote energy independence. In it, he instructed EPA to rescind, replace or revise the Clean Power Plan.”
Wheeler announced the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) to restore federalism and remove centralized control by ending the dubiously titled Clean Power Plan. These regulations were crippling the coal industry, which was a stated goal made by Obama before he was elected President.
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The newly anti-establishment Romney wants to return America to the policies of the Obama administration. Romney appears to be a “renegade” in the same sense that deceased former Sen. John McCain was a “maverick.” He is willing support the globalist status quo, even when it is remarkably unpopular among his constituents to do so.
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Related Links:
Prepare to barf: Sen. Mitt Romney helps GOP look for ‘new path on climate change’ – A GOP Green New Deal lite?! – A group of Republicans — Romney and Sens. Lamar Alexander (Tenn.) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.), who worked with Democrats in 2009 and 2010 to cap carbon emissions, as well as others — have taken it upon themselves to come up with market-based approaches to addressing climate change. “There’s no question that we’re experiencing climate change and that humans are a significant contributor to that,” Romney told The Hill. “In my view, the course forward is going to require innovation and technology breakthrough because nothing I’ve seen is going to reverse the warming trend other than that.” …
Sen. Graham, who worked about a decade ago with then-Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) on a proposal to curb carbon emissions, agrees with Romney that spurring technological innovation to reduce carbon emissions or remove atmospheric carbon is better than penalizing companies for burning fossil fuels.
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Flashback: LA Times: Mitt Romney worked to combat climate change as governor: ‘One of Romney’s top environmental staffers, Gina McCarthy, now runs air pollution unit of EPA’ – ‘John Holdren, a scientist Romney turned to on at least one occasion to discuss climate change, is the White House senior advisor on science and technology issues. Romney’s gubernatorial record on energy and the environment has little in common with the positions he has staked out in the presidential race, those who knew him in Massachusetts say. He’s sort of been all over the map on many of these issues…’
