This is one hell of a walk-back pander session.
ROMNEY: I believe we should keep our air and our water clean. And that we don’t want to have pollutants that are interfering with our health and damaging the ability of our children to enjoy good health. So no question we have to have standards that improve the quality of our air. And I support reasonable standards. … Do I support the EPA? In much of its mission yes, but in some of its mission no. The EPA getting into carbon footprints, and… [APPLAUSE] I think we may have made a mistake, we have made a mistake is what I believe, in saying that the EPA should regulate carbon emissions. I don’t think that was the intent of the original legislation, and I don’t think carbon is a pollutant in the sense of harming our bodies. We can agree to disagree … My view is that the EPA getting into carbon and regulating carbon has gone beyond the original intent of the legislation. I do believe we should reduce the pollutants that harm our health.
"I don’t think carbon is a pollutant in the sense of harming our bodies."
Smog. Oil. Coal Ash. CO2. They aren't a pollutant in the sense of harming our bodies?
I wonder what the residents of the gulf coast would say about that. I wonder what the 3,000 people who die per year in the U.S. because of the side effects of carbon emissions would say about that. Or what the 50,000 people who die per year in China because of the side effects of carbon emissions would say about that.
It wasn't so long ago that Mitt Romney actually supported Cap and Trade legislation, and now he's declaring that carbon isn't a harm to our bodies.