By DARREN SAMUELSOHN
Mitt Romney is still trying to plant himself in the global warming skeptic camp. “My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet,” the GOP presidential front-runner said Thursday during a fundraiser in Pittsburgh. “And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.”
Romney’s doubts about climate science — countering the widespread understanding that human activity and greenhouse gas emissions are a contributing factor to rises in global temperatures — have become a regular feature in his presidential campaign and represent a gradual rightward shift for someone who once considered putting a limit on power plant emissions.
In late August, as conservative lawmakers questioned his stance on the topic, Romney tried to align himself with those who dispute global warming science by questioning the role that humans play.
“Do I think the world’s getting hotter? Yeah, I don’t know that, but I think that it is,” Romney said in New Hampshire, according to Reuters. “I don’t know if it’s mostly caused by humans.”
Romney aides argued then that he wasn’t changing his position, noting that he’d made a similar case in his book “No Apology.”
“I believe that climate change is occurring — the reduction in the size of global ice caps is hard to ignore,” he wrote. “I also believe that human activity is a contributing factor. I am uncertain how much of the warming, however, is attributable to man and how much is attributable to factors out of our control.”
