Newt Beats Mitt on Energy [Gingrich Has "Revolutionary Ideas," Romey Has "Bush Bureaucrats"]

National Review ^ | January 26, 2012 | Robert Zubrin

[Steelfish]

JANUARY 26, 2012 Newt Beats Mitt on Energy Gingrich has revolutionary ideas, while Mitt enlists Bush-era bureaucrats. By Robert Zubrin

In the race for the Republican nomination, instead of focusing on where the front-runners differ on policy, most of the commentary has focused on their contrasting personalities, putative past malfeasances, campaign gaffes, debate performances, and other atmospherics. This is unfortunate, because in the critical area of energy policy, Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney are as different as night and day.

Newt Gingrich has been advancing the cause of American energy independence for years. In 2008, for example, he published a book entitled “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” and produced a movie, We Have the Power, making the same points. When oil prices soared above $130 per barrel that year, he used these materials to launch a nationwide petition campaign for expanded drilling, which gathered several million signatures and provided the GOP with one of its more compelling planks in the election. Since then, he has continued to campaign for expanded drilling, opening up the vehicle-fuel market to natural gas and methanol, and building the Keystone pipeline. Most important, he has openly called for the abolition of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the single largest obstacle to energy development (and other types of industrial growth) in the United States.