Ohio Gov. Kasich Believes in Climate Change, but Embraces Coal

Ohio GOP Gov. John Kasich doesn’t agree with some of his fellow Republicans that climate change is a myth, but he still embraces coal and opposes Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules on climate change.

“I am a believer — my goodness, I am a Republican — I happen to believe there is a problem with climate change. I don’t want to overreact to it, I can’t measure it all, but I respect the creation that the Lord has given us and I want to make sure we protect it,” Kasich said at a Columbus, Ohio, energy conference, The Hill reports.

“We can’t overreact to it and make things up, but it is something we have to recognize is a problem,” Kasich said.

He supports efforts to develop environmentally safe means of extracting carbon from coal and storing the energy source. But he doesn’t support EPA moves to get in the way.

“We are going to continue to work on cleaning coal, but I want to tell you, we are going to dig it, we are going to clean it, and we are going to burn it in Ohio,” Kasich said. “We are not going to apologize for it.”