Romney uses 2007 Biden comment to attack administration on coal

Mitt Romney greets coal miners after speaking during a campaign event at the American Energy Corporation in Beallsville, Ohio, August 14, 2012.

/ SAUL LOEB

(CBS News) BEALLSVILLE, Ohio - Campaigning in rural coal country, Mitt Romney on Tuesday revived a controversial five-year-old comment from Vice President Joe Biden as evidence that the Obama administration is insufficiently committed to energy from coal.

In a 2007 interview on HBO's Real Time With Bill Maher, Biden, then a 2008 presidential candidate, was asked which is more likely to contribute to Americans' deaths - air pollution from coal, high-fructose corn syrup or a terrorist attack. Biden responded: "Air that has too much coal in it, corn syrup next, then a terrorist attack. But that is not in any way to diminish the fact that a terrorist attack is real. It is not an existential threat to bringing down the country, but it does have the capacity, still, to kill thousands of people. But hundreds of thousands of people die and their lives are shortened because of coal plants, coal-fired plants and because of corn syrup."

Addressing a crowd in Beallsville, Romney attacked President Obama's energy policies and added, "His vice president said coal is more dangerous than terrorists. Can you imagine that? This tells you precisely what he actually feels and what he's done and his policies over the last three and a half years have put in place the very vision he had when he was running for office."

The video of Biden's comment has made the rounds of conservative blogs and websites for years. Republicans have repeatedly accused Obama of waging a "war on coal," pointing to declines in its usage, while administration officials say economics are to blame: The Environmental Protection Agency has been devising court-mandated rules on air pollution at a time when low natural-gas prices are pushing out coal-generated electricity.

Romney also took issue with a claim that the Obama administration is committed to coal and sought to eliminate any suspicion - fueled by a 2003 statement opposing a Massachusetts coal plant in which he declared that he would not "create jobs that kill people" - that he is against coal.

"Of course I like all the sources of energy," he said. " You've probably heard the president say he's for all of the above, and I wondered what he meant because I see how he's waging war on coal. And I wonder how he could possibly say that. Then it came to me - he's for all the sources of energy that come from above the ground."

Under questioning from reporters, Romney senior adviser Kevin Madden said Romney hasn't changed his position on coal over the years. He said Romney's opposition to the Massachusetts plant stemmed from concerns over its safety.

"Any time you're dealing with any sort of energy exploration, safety is important - no change in that," Madden said.

[GOP-R--Con-Men]

Who is Paul Ryan?

A catholic who rejects the teachings of Jesus Christ for the philosophy of atheist Ayn Rand. Nice pick Mitt

[retmw1]

I've worked on pollution systems, scrubbers ect. The cost of new equipment and installation is minor compared to the cost of maintaining those systems and keeping them working within clean air standards. So when you figure that cost vs other fuels coal is not a cheap form of energy.

[WHAT-IS-HE-SMOKING]

In a 2003 speech, Governor Mitt Romney stated: "I will not create jobs that kills people" speaking of the coal industry.

[hhandyman]

If you check out Romney's Governor ship history on his anti-coal lobby for its pollution effects and what he did then think before you believe the pat on the back you hear in today's speeches He asked for support and to get others to support him when he sure didn't support coal as Governor and has done all he can to union bust in the world of business. You are not doing any better in Republican vote this time. As the song from 1972 says" Smiling faces some times tell LIES"

[bob_scofield]

Is Mitt Romney that out of touch with reality that he doesn't understand that what Biden said is correct? Or is he just blatantly pandering to his audience full of coal workers?

Biden was asked to rank the risks of 3 dangers from highest to lowest and he said coal (most dangerous), corn syrup, and then terrorist attacks.

In this country's HISTORY fewer than 4,000 Americans have been killed by terrorists.

Every objective scientific study puts the number of annual deaths related to coal pollution over 10,000 PER YEAR. In fact, never mind breathing the pollution, more people have been killed working in coal mines than have been killed by terrorists in the past 30 years.

It may be impossible to determine what percentage of obesity related deaths (diabetes, heart attacks, etc.) is attributable to corn syrup, since it is just one of many horrible foods that destroy people's health, but I think it's safe to say that we can apportion more than 4,000 deaths in the last 30 or so years to corn syrup.

Romney is a joke.

[sjc_1]

Coal combustion causes thousand of deaths each year. Black lung disease is on the rise among younger miners each year.

The GOP keeps wanting you to think in terms of fossil fuels like coal for the next 100 years. If we develop fast reactors with thorium we will have power for a 1000 years, with NO Global Warming and much less harmful nuclear waste for a much shorter period of time.