Evan McMorris-Santoro December 6, 2011, 2:02 PM

Jon Huntsman used to believe climate change is real. Now he’s not so sure.

In a move that’s sure to endear him to the conservatives who are starting to warm up to the former Utah governor, Huntsman said Tuesday under questioning from TPM that he now believes there’s “more debate yet to play out” before we can be sure climate change is really happening.

That’s certainly not the way Huntsman sounded waaay back in August, when he famously tweeted:

“To be clear, I believe in evolution and trust scientists on global warming. Call me crazy.”

That was part of an organized effort by Huntsman to be the sane one when it came to climate science. In an interview with Time, he said it this way:

“I’m not a meteorologist. All I know is 90 percent of the scientists say climate change is occurring. If 90 percent of the oncological community said something was causing cancer we’d listen to them.”

That sent conservative climate change deniers into a panic and helped transform Huntsman into the left’s favorite Republican candidate for president.

It’s worth noting at this point that Huntsman never really was all that liberal when it came to climate change. He accepted it as real, sure, but promised he’d never do anything about it because it would be too expensive.

Anyway, now he’s talking about the conspiracy theories that have been a mainstay of the climate change denier community for years and backing off his previous contention that climate science is real.

“[T]here is — there are questions about the validity of the science, evidenced by one university over in Scotland recently,” Huntsman said, referring to the East Anglia University conspiracy that continues to fuel climate change skepticism. “I think the onus is on the scientific community to provide more in the way of information, to help clarify the situation.”

Huntsman spoke with TPM at a briefing hosted by the Heritage Foundation.

2012, 2012 Presidential Primaries, Climate Change, Jon Huntsman