‘Renegade Republican’ Mitt Romney Comes Out in Favor of Carbon Taxes

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT), who claims he is no longer is apart of the Republican Party establishment in the age of Donald Trump, is demonstrating his new “renegade” status by pushing for carbon taxes to cripple the U.S. economy.

“In some respects, (by speaking with newer conservatives), I’ll be able to make inroads with some of the young people coming along,” he told the Sutherland Institute in Salt Lake City, claiming that he was reaching young people by preaching about the evils of global warming.

“I’m not willing to sit by if there are major sectors that are losers … and watch people and communities suffer because of that change,” he added.

Romney outlined his support for cap-and-trade policies during his speech. He wants to place a fee for each ton of carbon dioxide emissions that businesses release into the atmosphere. He believes some of the tax money could go to provide federal welfare to coal workers who are put out of jobs under his proposal.

Meanwhile, President Trump is bringing the industry back by shredding regulations that prevent coal mines from providing jobs to rural, poverty-stricken Appalachian states. Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reversed his predecessor’s rules last month that were holding back the coal industry, allowing states to set their own emissions standards regarding power plants.

“We are gathered here today because the American public elected a president with a better approach,” EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in July. “One of the President’s first acts in office was to issue an executive order to promote energy independence. In it, he instructed EPA to rescind, replace or revise the Clean Power Plan.”

Wheeler announced the Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) to restore federalism and remove centralized control by ending the dubiously titled Clean Power Plan. These regulations were crippling the coal industry, which was a stated goal made by Obama before he was elected President.

“The Affordable Clean Energy rule — ACE — gives states the regulatory certainty they need to continue to reduce emissions and provide affordable and reliable energy for all Americans,” Wheeler said.

“Unlike the CPP, the ACE rule adheres to the four corners of the Clean Air Act. EPA sets the best system of emission reductions and then states set the standards of performance,” he added.

The newly anti-establishment Romney wants to return America to the policies of the Obama administration. Romney appears to be a “renegade” in the same sense that deceased former Sen. John McCain was a “maverick.” He is willing support the globalist status quo, even when it is remarkably unpopular among his constituents to do so.