In 2003, as governor of a solidly blue state, Romney won cheers from green groups when he appointed a team of officials with strong environmental records to oversee a muscular climate-change and clean-energy agenda. Among them was Gina McCarthy, a brusque, straight-talking expert in environmental regulation from South Boston; Romney appointed her undersecretary for policy at the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and charged her with developing the state’s first climate-protection action plan. Activists celebrated when Romney established emissions caps for coal-fired power plants, openly slamming pollution at a speech in front of an aging coal plant in Salem, Mass. The governor declared, “I will not create jobs or hold jobs that kill people; and that plant, that plant kills people.” As governor, Romney also backed clean-energy spending—he was a cheerleader for a state renewable-energy trust fund that pumped tens of millions of dollars into solar and other clean-energy companies and programs under his watch.
http://www.nationaljournal.com/issues/obama-vs-romney-energy-fuel-for-the-fire-20120823
= new reply since forum marked as read
