Romney: Climate Change Real, Man Made
Presidential candidate Mitt Romney reiterated Friday that he thinks man has contributed to climate change and urged a reduction of greenhouse gasses - a stance he has taken before, but one that nonetheless remains highly controversial within the Republican Party.
"I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that," he said during a town hall meeting in New Hampshire, according to Reuters. "It's important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors."
It's far from the first time Romney has said he thinks man is contributing to climate change. In his 2010 book No Apology: The Case for American Greatness, the former Massachusetts governor wrote he thought man was contributing to global warming, saying the melting polar ice caps are "hard to ignore."
Even as conservative disbelief in climate change science hardens, it's notable Romney isn't backing down from an unpopular decision.
In the book, he also questioned how much of the warming is man-made while outlining several alternate theories about the causes of the rising temperatures, such as cyclical temperature cycles. He also emphasized his opposition to "unilateral U.S. cap-and-trade mandates."
He also took substantive steps as governor to combat climate change, arguing that even if it's not occurring, efforts to reduce greenhouse emissions would benefit the economy.
"The same policies that protect the climate also promote energy efficiency, smart business practices, and improve the environment in which our citizens live and work," Romney wrote in a 2004 letter.
But the governor also opted his state out of a regional cap-and-trade program, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.
Even if it's not a new position, Romney's acknowledgment of man-made climate change is likely to stoke skepticism among conservatives who view him as too moderate. The view that humans are contributing to climate change is a highly controversial position within the GOP, with most conservatives fiercely disputing the notion that Earth is warming at all.
A National Journal analysis of GOP Senate nominees in 2010, for instance, found only one candidate in 21, now-Illinois Sen. Mark Kirk, said he thought man was contributing to climate change.
He's not the only presidential candidate with a problematic climate change history, either. Tim Pawlenty supported cap-and-trade legislation in the past - a position he has now apologized for - while Newt Gingrich cut a TV ad in 2008 with then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi urging action against climate change.
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