In a position shift, Romney says the cause of climate change is unknown

Republican White House hopeful Mitt Romney is trying to cement his status as a skeptic of man-made global warming after coming under fire from conservatives for saying that humans contribute to climate change.

During a fundraising event in Pittsburgh on Thursday, Romney cast doubt on climate science, bringing his position on global warming closer to that of his rivals for the GOP nomination.  

“My view is that we don’t know what’s causing climate change on this planet,” Romney said during a speech, a clip of which was posted by the liberal blog Think Progress. “And the idea of spending trillions and trillions of dollars to try to reduce CO2 emissions is not the right course for us.”

{mosads}Other Republican presidential candidates have been more direct in questioning climate science. Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), for instance, called global warming “one contrived phony mess” in his book Fed Up!

The Perry campaign accused Romney of flipping his position on climate change and said his remarks in Pittsburgh “contradicted his own record on capping carbon emissions” as governor of Massachusetts. 

“Mitt Romney’s positions change, often dramatically, depending on the audience or location,” Perry spokesman Ray Sullivan said in a statement.

A Romney campaign spokeswoman said Friday that the former Massachusetts governor has been “nothing but consistent on this issue.”

“This is ridiculous. Governor Romney’s view on climate change has not changed. He believes it’s occurring, and that human activity contributes to it, but he doesn’t know to what extent. He opposes cap and trade, and he refused to sign such a plan when he was governor. Maybe the bigger threat is all the hot air coming from career politicians who are desperate to hold on to power,” said Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul in a statement.

Conservatives slammed Romney after he said in June that human beings were partly responsible for climate change, bucking the position of many in his party.

“I don’t speak for the scientific community, of course, but I believe the world’s getting warmer. I can’t prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer,” he said in New Hampshire. “And No. 2, I believe that humans contribute to that. I don’t know how much our contribution is to that, because I know that there have been periods of greater heat and warmth in the past, but I believe we contribute to that.”

The comments added to the debate within the GOP about whether Romney is conservative enough to be the party’s standard-bearer in 2012.

Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh bashed Romney over the remarks. “Bye-bye, nomination,” he said in response, according to The Washington Post.

Two months later, Romney appeared to slightly shift his position on climate change.

“Do I think the world’s getting hotter? Yeah, I don’t know that, but I think that it is,” Romney said in New Hampshire in August. “I don’t know if it’s mostly caused by humans.”

During his speech in Pittsburgh, Romney said efforts to reduce the country’s greenhouse gas emissions would burden the economy and cost jobs, echoing concerns by Republicans and some moderate Democrats.

“By the way, they do not call it America warming, they call it global warming. So the idea of America spending massive amounts, trillions of dollars to somehow stop global warming is not a great idea,” he said. 

“It loses jobs for Americans and ultimately it won’t be successful, because industries that are energy intensive will just get up and go somewhere else.”

If elected president, Romney said he would aggressively develop “our oil, our gas, our coal, our nuclear power.”

“My view with regards to energy policy is pretty straightforward. I want us to become energy secure and independent of the oil cartels,” he said.

The vast majority of scientists believe the planet is warming in large part due to human activity, but the issue remains contentious in the Republican Party.

—This story was originally posted at 12:15 p.m. and has been updated.