Romney Unveils Climate Plan But Doesn't Think Warming Is Happening

[hatrack]

"As he introduced a new state policy to combat global warming, Governor Mitt Romney had a surprise for the environmentalists gathered along the Charles River Esplanade yesterday: Personally, he's not sure global warming is happening.

During a news conference at which he formally announced the Massachusetts Climate Protection Plan, Romney said he decided not to take sides in the debate about "is there global warming or is there not, and what's causing it."

His hedging on the issue surprised some activists, who had praised the state plan for accepting greenhouse gases as a significant cause of global warming, a connection that the White House and Republicans nationally have sometimes tried to downplay.

Though the new state plan points to a "consensus of climate change scientists" who agree that an increase in greenhouse gases is causing global temperatures to rise, Romney attached a letter to the plan's final version suggesting he remains unconvinced on the issue at the heart of the proposal. "If climate change is happening, the actions we take will help," Romney wrote. "If climate change is largely caused by human action, this will really help. If we learn decades from now that climate change isn't happening, these actions will still help our economy, our quality of life, and the quality of our environment."

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