Mitt Romney surprised a lot of folks this weekend by jumping off the climate-denial bandwagon. This probably makes him more appealing to independents, but might give candidates like Newt Gingrich (climate change is “the newest excuse to take control of lives” by “left-wing intellectuals”) more room with right-leaning primary voters.

On a similar note, voters on the left are getting upset with Obama’s continual giveaways to the coal and oil industries. Creating a huge coal export market to China and domestic offshore drilling presence will only make it harder to go cold turkey when we need to.

“The world is getting warmer”: Romney

Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney broke with Republican orthodoxy on Friday by saying he believes that humans are responsible, at least to some extent, for climate change.

“I believe the world is getting warmer, and I believe that humans have contributed to that,” he told a crowd of about 200 at a town hall meeting in Manchester, New Hampshire.

“It’s important for us to reduce our emissions of pollutants and greenhouse gases that may be significant contributors.”

The former Massachusetts governor fielded questions on topics ranging from the debt ceiling to abortion on his first full day of campaigning for 2012 Republican primary nomination.

Romney leads opinion polls in New Hampshire by a wide margin, and is among the top contenders nationally to win the Republican primary.

But the candidate lost the publicity battle on Thursday when his campaign launch in New Hampshire was overshadowed by Republican star Sarah Palin, who swooped in as part of her East Coast bus tour to dominate local media coverage.

In addressing climate change and energy policy, Romney called on the United States to break its dependence on foreign oil, and expand alternative energies including solar, wind, nuclear and clean coal.

Read more at Reuters.