Romney hedges on global warming

As he introduced a new state policy to combat global warming, Governor Mitt Romney had a surprise for the environmentalists gathered along the Charles River Esplanade yesterday: Personally, he's not sure global warming is happening.

During a news conference at which he formally announced the Massachusetts Climate Protection Plan, Romney said he decided not to take sides in the debate about "is there global warming or is there not, and what's causing it."

His hedging on the issue surprised some activists, who had praised the state plan for accepting greenhouse gases as a significant cause of global warming, a connection that the White House and Republicans nationally have sometimes tried to downplay.

Though the new state plan points to a "consensus of climate change scientists" who agree that an increase in greenhouse gases is causing global temperatures to rise, Romney attached a letter to the plan's final version suggesting he remains unconvinced on the issue at the heart of the proposal.

"If climate change is happening, the actions we take will help," Romney wrote. "If climate change is largely caused by human action, this will really help. If we learn decades from now that climate change isn't happening, these actions will still help our economy, our quality of life, and the quality of our environment."

Romney said yesterday he considered the new climate plan a "no-regrets" policy. Even if greenhouse gases turn out not to be driving climate change, he said, the state will have improved air quality, stimulated the economy, and saved money by reducing its appetite for energy.

Some observers see the governor walking a subtle but savvy line between the moderate Massachusetts constituents he is courting and the conservative wing of the national Republican Party, which argues that greenhouse gases do not play a significant enough role in climate change to warrant mandatory reductions.

"It may also be some effort to spare the Bush administration from a prominent Republican governor contradicting their policy," said Jeffrey M. Berry, a professor of political science at Tufts University. "I suspect that as they were going over the final documents, somebody said, `We ought to take a bow to the White House here and not necessarily anger them.' "

The Massachusetts plan calls for a host of voluntary and state-sponsored measures to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, which are released by cars, trucks, power plants, and other sources.

A number of other states, including several led by Republican governors, are developing plans to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Groups such as the Union of Concerned Scientists, which advocates for environmental issues, have accused the Bush White House of ignoring available science and overstating the uncertainty about global warming.

"I think it's a distortion of the deep scientific consensus," said Cindy Luppi, organizing director for Clean Water Action. "However, the bottom line is that the state is moving forward, and that's the piece that will result in pollution reductions for the state."

Rather than get caught up in debate, Romney said, his administration decided to move forward.

"I'm not a scientist," he said. "I read one book over the summer that said, `gee, global warming is happening for reasons unrelated to human participation,' and other reports, far more, indicate, `no no, it's very much driven by humans.' Well, I don't know."

Douglas I. Foy, the longtime environmental attorney who heads Romney's Office of Commonwealth Development and who championed the climate plan, said he believes Romney is "agnostic" on the issue, and that agreement on the particulars of the science is unnecessary.

Asked by a reporter at the news conference whether he had been pressured by the White House to water down the report, Romney said no. But earlier he mentioned that former Environmental Protection Agency administrator Christie Whitman told him to refer to "climate change" rather than "global warming." That term had been recommended by a national Republican pollster who found that voters found it less frightening than global warming. In a memo widely publicized by an environmental group, the pollster had also recommended that politicians voice uncertainty about climate science.

The governor was joined at his announcement yesterday by business leaders from Polaroid Corp., Bank of America, and other companies that support the initiative. Some said they were encouraged by the plan, which, in its only significant mandatory feature, requires more large industries to report carbon dioxide emissions.

Others said they were pleased the plan did not include sweeping mandates for businesses. "Given what its purpose is, it's a pretty measured document. It does rely on a high level of cooperation between the public and private sector, and we like that," Robert Ruddock, general counsel for Associated Industries of Massachusetts, said later in the day. "It is not a radical approach. It's more of an evolutionary approach."

Stephanie Ebbert can be reached at ebbert@globe.com.