Romney Faults Obama for Rising Gas Prices Damon Winter/The New York Times Mitt Romney, center, greeted supporters at the Port of Pascagoula in Mississippi last month. WASHINGTON - For several weeks, Mitt Romney has seized on the rising cost of gasoline to attack President Obama and his environmental aides for what Mr. Romney calls their misguided desire to see higher energy prices. In an online town-hall-style meeting last week, Mr. Romney accused Mr. Obama of having a presidential policy intended to "see energy prices rise," and he mocked the president for once saying that he would like gasoline prices to "change gradually." "They have put in place policies that are designed to reduce our production of fossil-based fuels and drive up the cost of energy and therefore encourage people to move towards wind and solar which are of course much higher cost," Mr. Romney said in the Google+ hangout. But Mr. Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, has in the past appeared much more open to the notion that rising energy costs could be good for the American economy. In his 2010 book, "No Apology," Mr. Romney described a gradual increase in the cost of energy as the kind of market-based incentive that conservatives could embrace. While not suggesting particular policies that might lead to higher prices - like an increase in the gas tax, a carbon tax or a cap-and-trade plan - Mr. Romney praised the benefits that would flow from a slowly increasing cost of energy. "Higher energy prices would encourage energy efficiency across the full array of American businesses and citizens," Mr. Romney wrote. It would provide industries of all kinds with a predictable outlook for energy costs, allowing them to confidently invest in growth. In the book, Mr. Romney called for greater domestic exploration and drilling. And he expressed concern about the collateral damage from higher energy prices on people who drive great distances, businesses that consume a lot of energy and people on fixed incomes. But he acknowledged that allowing the price for gas and oil to rise could be the centerpiece of "game-changing incentives" that would alter consumer behavior when it came to buying cars and using electricity. That, he wrote, could help the country wean itself off an overreliance on foreign oil. "To become energy secure, we may need to turn to those game-changing incentives that will lead individuals and businesses of all kinds to invest in efficiency and to reduce their use of oil and energy," he wrote. Campaign aides say Mr. Romney's position on energy remains consistent. They say the energy chapter in his book carefully lays out the beliefs he now espouses as he seeks to become the Republican nominee. Asked to square Mr. Romney's statements in his book with his recent criticism of Mr. Obama, the Romney campaign replied by reiterating its assertion that the president is harming the economy by pushing for higher energy costs. "President Obama is succeeding in his efforts to drive energy prices higher, producing the hardship for American families and businesses that Governor Romney predicted," Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for Mr. Romney, said. This is exactly why the governor has always rejected proposals that would increase prices, and why he instead supports a strategy of developing the extraordinary energy resources that we have in this country. On the campaign trail and in the book, Mr. Romney has condemned what he calls the "radical, feel-good policies" like the cap-and-trade plan to confront global warming that Mr. Obama pushed early in his presidency. "Such policies would have little effect on the climate but could cripple economic growth with devastating results for people across the planet," he wrote. And Mr. Romney continues to emphasize the need to increase domestic oil drilling, coal exploration and the use of nuclear power. He wrote that the "right step" is to "get started by authorizing exploration and infrastructure construction." But as he has moved closer to the Republican nomination, Mr. Romney has adopted a much more aggressive approach to confronting Mr. Obama over energy prices. That has intensified even more as the price of gas has jumped. In March of 2010, when the book was released, the average cost of a gallon of gas was $2.79. The current average price is more than $1 per gallon higher. Mr. Romney has joined his Republican rivals and his party's leadership in Congress in blaming Mr. Obama and his administration for the rise in gas prices. His favorite targets are the secretary of energy, the secretary of the interior and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency.