President Obama mocked Mitt Romney over wind energy at a campaign stop in Oskaloosa, Iowa, on Tuesday, arguing that the GOP candidate's opposition to green investments is short-sighted and will cost jobs.
“During a speech a few months ago, Gov. Romney ... explained his energy policy this way: ‘You can’t drive a car with a windmill on it,’” Obama said. “That's what he said about wind power: ‘You can't drive a car with a windmill on it.’”
“I wonder if he actually tried that. I know he's had other things on his car,“ Obama said, a reference to an incident in which Romney put his dog in a carrier on the roof of his car during a road trip.
"But if he really wants to learn something about wind energy, Iowa, all he has to do is pay attention to what you’ve been doing,” Obama continued.
The White House on Tuesday was touting a new report from the Energy Department that showed 32 percent of newly installed power-generating capacity in 2011 came from wind, amounting to $14 billion of investment.
While the Romney campaign has hammered the president for his green energy policies, the Obama team thinks it has a winning issue in battleground state Iowa with its support for wind power.
Wind power has buoyed Iowa’s economy during a drought that has crippled the state’s agricultural industry. Farmers increasingly have relied on the steady profits provided by wind turbines to make up for the state’s devastated corn harvest. Iowa now ranks behind only Texas in installed wind generation capacity.
The wind energy production tax credit, slated to lapse at the end of the year, has contributed to the wind industry's success in the state, and Obama is pushing Congress to extend the federal tax credit. Romney has said he would allow the subsidy to lapse as scheduled, a pledge that has drawn the ire of some conservatives, including Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad (R).
Obama also hit vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan in the speech.
“At a moment when homegrown energy is creating new jobs in states like Iowa, my opponent wants to end tax credits for wind energy producers,” Obama said. “He’s said new sources of energy like these are ‘imaginary.’ His running mate calls them a ‘fad.’”
The battle over energy policy is taking center stage on Tuesday, with Romney expected to hammer Obama on coal in Ohio. At a campaign stop outside a coal mine, Romney will argue that the administration has pushed costly regulations which have stiffled the industry.
“Mitt Romney is a strong supporter of wind power and appreciates the industry’s extraordinary technological progress and its important contributions to America’s energy supply," Romney spokesman Ryan Williams told The Hill in a statement. "Unfortunately, under President Obama’s approach, the industry has lost 10,000 jobs while growth in wind power nationally has slowed every single year of his term. Mitt Romney will instead set the industry on a course for success and growth by promoting policies that remove regulatory barriers, support free enterprise and market-based competition, and reward technological innovation.”
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