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Oil-industry executives tell Romney: Life was better under President Bush
GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney says he’s heard from oil-industry executives who were happier under President George W. Bush’s Environmental Protection Agency — and Romney’s promising to rein in the EPA if he wins the White House.
Romney, at a Fox News event in New York on Saturday, noted he’s friends with Mike Leavitt, the former Utah governor who was the second of three EPA chiefs under Bush.
“I've asked some of the oil-and-gas-company executives, 'What was it like under Mike Leavitt?' And they said it was a whole lot better than it is today,” Romney, a Utah native and former Massachusetts governor, said at the event.
The oil-and-gas industry is chafing at a number of Obama administration policies.
Of late, companies have attacked planned EPA rules to curb air pollution from oil-and-gas wells tapped using the technique called “hydraulic fracturing,” a method that’s enabling a boom in development from shale formations across the country.
EPA is also developing wastewater standards for hydraulic fracturing operations.
More broadly, many energy executives have alleged that EPA and other federal agencies are imposing too many burdens, and say the Interior Department is making too few areas available for drilling.
Romney, at the candidate forum hosted by former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee (R), said he would “absolutely” prevent EPA oversight of hydraulic fracturing, a practice that oil-and-natural-gas advocates say is well-regulated at the state level.
“States have been managing this, managed it well, but the EPA wants to be able to get in and grab more power,” Romney said.
Romney is battling the ascendant New Gingrich at the head of the GOP White House field.
Gingrich, at the same event, touted his plan to abolish EPA.
“I want to develop an environmental solutions agency to replace the EPA with an agency which has to have economic rationality, has to look for innovation and entrepreneurship and has to collaborate rather than dictate to state and local government,” said Gingrich, the former House Speaker, arguing in favor of what he labeled “conservative environmentalism.”
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.), for her part, also said EPA is too aggressive and made the case for state-level oversight, except in certain circumstances.
“We already have 50 EPAs — every state has one — but there are issues between the states. And in that case, I think on a case-by-case basis, then the federal government gets involved, whether it's clean air or clean water, or if it's on our international border and we need to deal with other nations,” Bachmann said at the event.
She added, “[W]hat we can't have is the current department of EPA right now.
“They have essentially become a government to themselves, almost, and they are changing the course of history every day,” Bachmann said.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) touted his plans to open up far more public lands and waters to oil-and-gas drilling.
“In my plan for getting America back working, I talked about the energy industry and having the Department of Interior open up those federal lands and waters so that we can get into and explore for and get America more independent on the energy side,” Perry said, arguing that “millions of jobs” could be created.
Obama administration officials say they support expanded domestic energy production with necessary safeguards, and rebut claims that they have been too restrictive.
The Interior Department, when rolling out its proposed 2012-2017 offshore oil-and-gas leasing plan, circulated data showing that total (onshore and offshore) U.S. crude oil production was higher in 2010 than any year since 2003, and that natural-gas production is at its highest level in more than three decades.
But critics of the Obama administration say it is taking credit for production gains it had nothing to do with, arguing the prior administration paved the way for many of the production projects.
