GOP critics charge that the Obama administration's new regulations on carbon emissions amounts to a "war on coal" – an especially sensitive issue in Midwestern battleground states in the runup to November elections. Weeks of advertising by the Republican National Committee and Ohio-based Murray Energy Corp. blamed Obama for electricity cost increases in the state and for mining industry layoffs.
“If you don't believe in coal, if you don't believe in energy independence for America, just say it,” Romney said, according to The Columbus Dispatch newspaper. "If you believe the whole answer for our energy needs is wind and solar, then say that."
In response, the Obama campaign cites gains in coal production under this administration. In ads in coal-producing parts of Ohio, Obama's campaign touted rising coal production there during his presidency, Energy & Environment Daily reported.
"Here in Ohio, coal production has increased 7 percent since Obama took office," the ad says, according to E&E Daily. "Ohio coal jobs are up 10 percent. Obama has also made one of America's largest investments ever in clean-coal technology."
"It's been easy for the other side to pour millions of dollars into a campaign to debunk climate-change science," Obama told Rolling Stone magazine in April. "I suspect that over the next six months, [climate change] is going to be a debate that will become part of the campaign, and I will be very clear in voicing my belief that we’re going to have to take further steps to deal with climate change in a serious way."
Obama's efforts not to be painted as an über-regulator killing jobs has drawn uncharacteristic criticism from greens. First, the Obama campaign added a clean coal section to its website in the spring. Last month, an Obama ad that criticized Romney for flip flopping on greenhouse-gas emissions when he said as governor that a particular coal-fired power plant in Massachusetts "kills people."
"So when it comes to coal, ask yourself, who's being honest and who's playing politics?" the Obama ad said, according to Energy and Environment Daily.
But that won a brickbat from environment-booster Mother Jones magazine, which called the Obama ad "a new low, dinging Mitt Romney for remarking that coal 'kills people.' "
For a full list of stories about how Romney and Obama differ on the issues, click here.
