cl/rfWASHINGTON – The Environmental Protection Agency is emerging as a favorite target of the Republican presidential candidates, who portray it as the very symbol of a heavy-handed regulatory agenda imposed by the Obama administration that they say is strangling the economy.

Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota wants to padlock the EPA's doors, as does former Speaker Newt Gingrich. Gov. Rick Perry of Texas wants to impose an immediate moratorium on all environmental regulation.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas wants environmental disputes settled by the states or the courts. Herman Cain, a businessman, wants to put many environmental regulations in the hands of an independent commission that includes oil and gas executives. Jon Huntsman, the former Utah governor, thinks most new environmental regulations should be shelved until the economy improves.

Only Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, has a kind word for the EPA, and that is qualified by his opposition to the agency's proposed regulation of carbon dioxide and other gases that contribute to global warming.

Opposition to regulation and skepticism about climate change have become tenets of Republican orthodoxy, but they are embraced with extraordinary intensity this year because of the faltering economy, high fuel prices, the tea party passion for smaller government and an activist Republican base that insists on strict adherence to the party's central agenda.

But while attacks on the EPA, climate-change science and environmental regulation more broadly are surefire applause lines with many Republican primary audiences, these views may prove a liability in the general election, pollsters and analysts say. The American people, by substantial majorities, are concerned about air and water pollution and largely trust the EPA, according to national surveys.

"Not only are these positions irresponsible, they're politically problematic," said David Jenkins, vice president for government and political affairs for Republicans for Environmental Protection, a group that believes that conservation should be a core value of the Republican Party.

"The whole idea that you have to bash the EPA and run away from climate change to win a Republican primary has never been borne out. Where's the evidence?"

But the leading Republican candidates are all linking environmental regulation to jobs and the economy, suggesting that the nation cannot afford measures that impose greater costs on businesses and consumers.

Bachmann drew loud applause 10 days ago at a rally in Iowa when she declared: "I guarantee you the EPA will have doors locked and lights turned off, and they will only be about conservation. It will be a new day and a new sheriff in Washington, D.C."

In an earlier Republican debate she said the agency should be renamed the "job-killing organization of America." She has called global-warming science a hoax.

In his 2010 book, "Fed Up!: Our Fight to Save America from Washington," Perry described global-warming science as "one contrived phony mess that is falling apart under its own weight" and a "secular carbon cult" led by false prophets like former Vice President Al Gore.

At a campaign appearance Wednesday in New Hampshire, Perry repeated his skepticism that climate change is man-made and suggested that the costs of combating it – which he put at billions if not trillions of dollars – could not be justified.

Such sentiments are shared by many Republicans in Congress and are encouraged by industries and lobbies that are reliable financial supporters of Republican candidates – the petroleum industry, utilities, coal companies, heavy manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Republican presidential candidates cross these well-organized and well-financed interests at their peril.

"It remains to be seen of course, but my guess is that in order to get the nomination you're going to have to be pretty solid on these issues," said Myron Ebell, director of energy and global warming policy at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a libertarian research and advocacy organization in Washington.

Ebell said that Romney, Gingrich and Huntsman, who have all publicly said they believe global warming is real and at least tentatively attributed it to human actions, would suffer for it in the Republican primaries.

Perry's anti-EPA stance has been popular with Republican voters in Texas and could carry him far in the primaries, said Ken Kramer, director of the Texas chapter of the Sierra Club. It may, however, prove a liability in a general election, Kramer said.

"That kind of rhetoric is popular with a certain segment here," he said. "But a lot of other Texans, especially those in major cities with air pollution problems, are not necessarily supportive of the governor's war on the EPA."

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