The issues
Wind energy: Obama vs. Romney
President Barack Obama favors giving tax credits to producers of wind energy, while Mitt Romney opposes tax breaks for wind energy companies.
Obama has used the issue to attack Romney in Iowa, which has a substantial wind energy industry. On a campaign stop in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Obama quoted Romney as saying “you can’t drive a car with a windmill on it.”
Romney had made the statement in March at a rally in Zanesville, Ohio, a coal-mining center.
As many as 7,000 jobs in Iowa are related to the wind industry, according to the federal government, and that the state gets about 20 percent of its electricity from wind.
“Unlike my opponent, I want to stop giving $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies each year to big oil companies that have rarely been more profitable, and keep investing in homegrown energy sources like wind that have never been more promising,” Obama said on his visit to Oskaloosa, according to a reported by the Associated Press.
Romney has been a proponent of using all types of energy, but has been particularly vocal about his intent for the United States to begin participating in more off-shore drilling along Virginia, North Carolina and the Gulf of Mexico.
Romney told a crowd in Hobbs, N.M., that he would also like to see drilling in a federal Alaskan wildlife reserve, which he anticipates would create 3 million new jobs, according to the Associated Press. This, Romney said, would also create $1 trillion in new revenue and relieve North America of oil dependence by 2020.
“That means we produce all the energy we use in North America,” Romney said. “This is not some pie-in-the-sky kind of thing. This is a real achievable objective.”
When Romney visited Beallsville, Ohio, in August, he told the coal producers there that he hopes to create new and sustainable jobs for that region, and make the United States energy independent.
Romney also added that Obama doesn’t understand that the Beallsville area is a coal town, and that he doesn’t have as great of a connection with the citizens because of his focus on wind and solar energy production.
“To win Ohio, (Obama’s) got to win eastern Ohio,” Romney said in Beallsville, according to the Associated Press. “And he’s got to get the votes of the people in these communities all around us here. And you’re not going to let that happen.”
--Dylan Montz
Obama has used the issue to attack Romney in Iowa, which has a substantial wind energy industry. On a campaign stop in Oskaloosa, Iowa, Obama quoted Romney as saying “you can’t drive a car with a windmill on it.”
Romney had made the statement in March at a rally in Zanesville, Ohio, a coal-mining center.
As many as 7,000 jobs in Iowa are related to the wind industry, according to the federal government, and that the state gets about 20 percent of its electricity from wind.
“Unlike my opponent, I want to stop giving $4 billion in taxpayer subsidies each year to big oil companies that have rarely been more profitable, and keep investing in homegrown energy sources like wind that have never been more promising,” Obama said on his visit to Oskaloosa, according to a reported by the Associated Press.
Romney has been a proponent of using all types of energy, but has been particularly vocal about his intent for the United States to begin participating in more off-shore drilling along Virginia, North Carolina and the Gulf of Mexico.
Romney told a crowd in Hobbs, N.M., that he would also like to see drilling in a federal Alaskan wildlife reserve, which he anticipates would create 3 million new jobs, according to the Associated Press. This, Romney said, would also create $1 trillion in new revenue and relieve North America of oil dependence by 2020.
“That means we produce all the energy we use in North America,” Romney said. “This is not some pie-in-the-sky kind of thing. This is a real achievable objective.”
When Romney visited Beallsville, Ohio, in August, he told the coal producers there that he hopes to create new and sustainable jobs for that region, and make the United States energy independent.
Romney also added that Obama doesn’t understand that the Beallsville area is a coal town, and that he doesn’t have as great of a connection with the citizens because of his focus on wind and solar energy production.
“To win Ohio, (Obama’s) got to win eastern Ohio,” Romney said in Beallsville, according to the Associated Press. “And he’s got to get the votes of the people in these communities all around us here. And you’re not going to let that happen.”
--Dylan Montz