In a stump speech in Ohio on Tuesday, presidential hopeful Mitt Romney hit back at Barack Obama who last week started airing a new ad in the swing state that attacks Romney’s stance on coal.
After referring to the radio ad while being flanked by miners in hard hats Romney said: “How in the world can you go out there and just tell people things that aren’t true. […] This is a time for truth. If you don’t believe in coal, if you don’t believe in energy independence for America, then say it.”
The offending ad starts by touting Obama support for the clean coal industry specifically in Ohio where coal production has increased 7% since Obama took office.
“Obama’s also made one of America’s largest investments ever in clean coal technology, a $5 billion effort to create the next generation of coal-fired plants,” the ad goes on and then quotes from a 2003 speech Mitt Romney made at the Salem Massachusetts coal plant where he said “I will not create jobs that kill people, and that plant kills people!”
