Romney slams Obama over energy
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho -- No doubt about it -- energy was the theme of Mitt Romney's day.
Romney started his morning in Fargo, North Dakota, speaking about oil production, fracking and what he called President Obama's failures to help the American energy industry. He continued the message hours later in Idaho Falls, Idaho, where he accused Mr. Obama of cutting drilling permits by one-third.
The tone and message was no mistake - President Obama's day was also focused around energy. He was in Nashua, N.H., calling on Congress to vote in the coming weeks on ending billions of dollars in subsidies for the oil industry.
North Dakota enjoys a 3.3 percent unemployment rate, the lowest in the country, in large part due to the many jobs there in the energy sector. Romney said any recent production improvement came due to policies instated by President Bush, not Mr. Obama.
"Far from taking credit, he should be hanging his head and taking blame for what's going on today," Romney.
"How's this president been doing with regards to opening federal lands?" Romney said. "Well he's cut the lease rate in half - and how about giving permits to drillers? He's cut that rate of permitting down to one third. This is a president who's not been helping the situation."
Blake Wrigley, president of Wrigley Industries, where the morning event was held, concurred with Romney's assessment that the regulations imposed by the Obama administration pained his business. Wrigley said that a recent project his company took on - working on a large garbage incinerator - took a year and a half to get permits for - more time than the entire project itself actually took to create and install.
"These are all things that slow up the process on our end," he said, talking about the regulations.
When Romney generally addresses energy on the stump, it is to criticize Obama for his support of the green energy company, Solyndra, or his rejection of the Keystone XL Pipeline application. He hit on both today, particularly going after the president for failing to seize upon domestic natural resources.
"When someone says we want to bring in a pipeline that's going to create tens of thousands of jobs to bring oil in from Canada, how in the world could you say no? This is a president who does not understand energy. He is the problem; he is not the solution," Romney added.
He also took on fracking, a controversial measure used to extract oil and gas from the ground, railing on the president for trying to get the EPA involved in regulating.
In Idaho Falls, Idado, where thousands greeted the candidate on a frozen afternoon at Skyline High School, Romney again slammed the president's energy policy and said voters should not credit energy production to Mr. Obama.
"The American people are a little too smart for that," he said, to wild approval from the crowd. "He can't pull the wool over their eyes in that regard. The decisions to create more oil and gas coming from federal lands and new permits to entrepreneurs - those decisions were made by his predecessor. He has also cut in half the number of leases on federal lands."
Idaho has the second highest Mormon population in the country - 23 percent, according to Pew. Romney used to come as a kid, having family who farmed in the state, and referenced his father, who did as well.
"He said he had potatoes for breakfast, lunch and dinner," Romney said.
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