Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) said Thursday night that he was disappointed to see Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney disavow his belief in climate change.

As the governor of Massachusetts, Romney had worked to reduce the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. But at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Romney joked about the seriousness of climate change, lampooning President Barack Obama for promising to “heal the planet.”

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“Mitt Romney, when he was governor of Massachusetts, he actually took state money and invested it in clean energy,” Markey said on Current TV. “When he was governor, he believed in climate change. He talked about it in his 2010 book, ‘No Apologies.’

“But talking to that Gov. Romney would be like talking to an empty chair,” Markey added. “You cannot have a conversation with him, because the precondition to winning the nomination as a Republican in 2012 is to disclaim any belief in climate change — and that’s a sad state of affairs for that party.”

Watch video, courtesy of Current TV, below: