Rick Perry wants to all-but-eliminate the EPA (at the very least, he wants to severely hobble it.) And the people trying to keep President Obama in the White House are not going to let that stand.
Although Obama has been in some high-profile tussles with the environmentalist community lately, his campaign and its allies made it clear today they’re willing to defend their environmental record and contrast it with the universally-accepted view among the GOP candidates that environmental protection goes too far.
Perry’s plan, which he touted as a jobs package when he announced it Friday, would open up a ton of new land to drilling, baby, drilling and would slash the EPA’s budget by 60%.
This, of course, all comes from the man who has said that climate change is a hoax drummed up by scientists to bilk taxpayers out of grant money.
Team Obama has spooled up its anti-Mitt Romney efforts lately, but they took a break Friday to smack down Perry’s plans — and stand up for the agency charged with protecting the air, water and land.
“Rick Perry’s energy agenda today included well-known Republican proposals: reducing clean air regulations, substantially curtailing the Environmental Protection Agency, ending incentives for clean energy, and expanding opportunities for oil companies,” Bill Burton, the head of Obama fundraising machine Priorities USA Action, wrote in a memo to reporters. “While these proposals may appeal to the Tea Party, they are far outside mainstream American public opinion on the environment and energy.”
Burton cited numerous polls like this one (ironically some of the same polls used to ding Obama when his administration slowed a plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions earlier this year) to show that Americans want their EPA to work hard and have power to regulate.
The Obama campaign defended their guy’s record on environmental action in a statement to reporters after Perry’s speech. They attacked Perry for his plan to keep drilling while leaving protections — and, they said, work on alternative energy — by the wayside.
“Governor Perry’s energy policy isn’t the way to win the future, it’s straight out of the past – doubling down on finite resources with no plan to promote innovation or to transition the nation to a clean energy economy,” campaign spokesperson Ben LaBolt said.
