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- May 27, 2009
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Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee went out of his way Wednesday to denounce a brief reference to his stand on energy issues deep in a story posted on the political website RealClearPolitics.com.
The issue at hand dates back to 2007, when Huckabee made energy security a key plank in his bid for the 2008 nomination, saying then that he favored a cap-and-trade approach to curbing carbon emissions a policy later embraced by President Barack Obama.
In a piece on Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), RealClearPolitics's Erin McPike wrote: For his part, Huckabee supported mandatory cap and trade in late 2007 when he was running for president, as did the eventual nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain. Huckabee changed his position in October of 2009 via a blog post on his political action committee's website.
That prompted an indignant statement from Huckabee: In a recent Internet post, a contributor makes the claim that I supported cap and trade in late 2007 while running for president. To put it simply, that's just not true.
Huckabee then laid out his position on cap and trade, stating: If companies chose to participate voluntarily as part of their corporate policy, then fine. But I was clear [in 2007] that we could not force U.S. businesses to do what their Chinese counterparts refused to and doing so would have been a serious job killer.
This kind of mandatory energy policy would have a horrible impact on this nation's job market, he continued. I never did support and never would support it period.
But Huckabees position on capping carbon emission over the years has been far from cut and dried and his quick and harsh response to a reporter's tangential mention of his position shows he remains extremely sensitive to accusations of flip-flopping.
Read more: Mike Huckabee denies backing cap and trade - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com
The issue at hand dates back to 2007, when Huckabee made energy security a key plank in his bid for the 2008 nomination, saying then that he favored a cap-and-trade approach to curbing carbon emissions a policy later embraced by President Barack Obama.
In a piece on Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), RealClearPolitics's Erin McPike wrote: For his part, Huckabee supported mandatory cap and trade in late 2007 when he was running for president, as did the eventual nominee, Arizona Sen. John McCain. Huckabee changed his position in October of 2009 via a blog post on his political action committee's website.
That prompted an indignant statement from Huckabee: In a recent Internet post, a contributor makes the claim that I supported cap and trade in late 2007 while running for president. To put it simply, that's just not true.
Huckabee then laid out his position on cap and trade, stating: If companies chose to participate voluntarily as part of their corporate policy, then fine. But I was clear [in 2007] that we could not force U.S. businesses to do what their Chinese counterparts refused to and doing so would have been a serious job killer.
This kind of mandatory energy policy would have a horrible impact on this nation's job market, he continued. I never did support and never would support it period.
But Huckabees position on capping carbon emission over the years has been far from cut and dried and his quick and harsh response to a reporter's tangential mention of his position shows he remains extremely sensitive to accusations of flip-flopping.
Read more: Mike Huckabee denies backing cap and trade - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com
