Romney energy plan shows candidate’s changing views, draws questions on job claims

The energy chapter of Mitt Romney’s “Believe in America” economic plan is chock-full of statistics and job claims — numbers that will get a closer look after the recent dismal employment figures.

One of the controversial estimates in the plan is that new ozone regulations under President Obama would cost the U.S. economy 7.3 million jobs — more than all of the Americans who are now working for makers of apparel, automobiles, airplanes, machinery, paper, plastics and rubber, rail cars, beverages and cigarettes, and food and livestock products, as well as those working in mining or oil and gas extraction.

Some economists say the number is a stretch. And it may be moot, since Obama overruled the Environmental Protection Agency and shelved new ozone regulations in September, angering environmentalists...Romney’s campaign Web site still asserts that the Obama administration “has pursued numerous regulations that would drive up energy prices while destroying millions of jobs.”

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Recently, Romney, who says he opposes federal aid for renewable energy, has portrayed the bankrupt solar panel maker Solyndra, a recipient of $535 million in federal loan guarantees, as a poster child of policy failure. After talking to reporters outside the shuttered Solyndra plant last week, Romney released a television ad featuring images of the plant and of Romney, who tells viewers that the now-bankrupt company’s federal funding is an example of “crony capitalism.”

Romney’s view that the government should cut off aid to renewable energy marks a reversal for the candidate. On Jan. 22, 2003, after becoming Massachusetts governor, Romney stood in front of Konarka, a developer of thin-film solar panels, and handed out $9 million from a “green energy fund” to renewable energy firms. Two years later, he said that “clean energy” was “an economic engine very much like biotech” that could spur “explosive growth” in Massachusetts. Romney said he would make Massachusetts a more appealing place for such companies.

On June 1, however, the day after Romney stood in front of Solyndra, Konarka went bankrupt.

full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/romney-energy-plan-shows-changing-views-draws-questions-about-job-claims/2012/06/08/gJQAnPANOV_singlePage.html