As Massachusetts Governor, Romney Supported Higher Gas Prices and ‘smart growth’

[pampango]

As governor of Massachusetts in 2006, Mitt Romney opposed a Republican proposal to suspend the state gas tax during a gasoline price spike, saying “high gasoline prices are probably here to stay.” Romney’s “fit into his broader effort to promote ‘smart growth’ policies in Massachusetts,” Alec MacGillis of the New Republic reports. Romney told the Quincy Patriot Ledger that he opposed increased gasoline consumption:

“I don’t think that now is the time, and I’m not sure there will be the right time, for us to encourage the use of more gasoline. I’m very much in favor of people recognizing that these high gasoline prices are probably here to stay.” [Quincy Patriot Ledger, 5/06]

Now that Romney’s running for the Republican nomination and seeking the support of right-wing oil magnates like the Koch brothers, he’s changed his tune. On Sunday, Romney argued that the “gas hike trio” of Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson should “hand in their resignations” — because they and President Obama have pursued policies in line with Romney’s former position:

There’s no question but when he ran for office he said he wanted to see gasoline prices to go up. He said that energy prices would skyrocket under his views. And he selected three people to help him implement that program: the Secretary of Energy, the Secretary of the Interior, and the EPA Administrator. This gas hike trio has been doing the job over the last three-and-a-half years and gas prices are up. The right course is, they ought to be fired, because the president has apparently suffered an election-year conversion. He’s now decided that gasoline prices should come down.

http://thinkprogress.org/green/2012/03/22/449813/flashback-as-massachusetts-governor-romney-supported-higher-gas-prices/

"Smart growth" is the subject of conspiracy theory (Agenda 21) among many teabaggers.

In some parts of the country, tea partyers have disrupted local government meetings demanding an end to so-called smart growth and sustainable community policies they see as outgrowths of Agenda 21.

(I)ncreasingly, the right-wing patriots are warning of an international conspiracy called Agenda 21, named after a 1992 United Nations policy statement on environment and poverty.

Tea partyers say the policy is an attempt to take away property rights in the name of smart growth and sustainability. They see conspirators embedded throughout the fabric of local governments, where they push for walkable communities, greenways, light rail and denser, urban communities.

Around the country, the tea party and associated conservative groups are making Agenda 21 a litmus test for Republican candidates. The issue came up in Florida's U.S. Senate race at a Feb. 19 straw poll conducted by the Florida Federation of Republican Women. Cindy Graves, president of the organization, told The Tampa Tribune that Agenda 21 was one of the issues her members most wanted to hear the three Republican candidates address.

http://www2.tbo.com/news/news/2012/mar/18/memeto1-tea-party-sounds-alarm-over-lost-property--ar-382137/

[MADem]

1. You wanna see some spinning and bullshitting? Check THIS out!

[Scuba]

2. Yeah, but what about the following day, huh? What did he support then?