Two days after drawing fire for blunt comments regarding Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke, Perry decried the global-warming issue as "politicized" and questioned the science behind it while speaking at an event in New Hampshire.
Perry has been outspoken on the issue for years, but his comments are getting attention like never before now that he's a front-running Republican presidential candidate.
"I think we're seeing almost weekly, or even daily, scientists that are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change," the Texas governor said on the first stop of a two-day trip to New Hampshire.
Along with drawing outrage from environmentalists, the remarks put Perry at odds with Republican rival Mitt Romney on an issue that has become a litmus test for some conservative voters.
Romney has said repeatedly that he believes global warming is real and that humans contribute to it.
Jon Huntsman and Newt Gingrich - who at one point supported steps to curb global-warming pollution - have since tempered their stances.
While most climate scientists believe that climate change is real and that fossil-fuel combustion is helping warm the Earth, a core group of dissenters - coupled with some conservative groups and activists - have challenged that view.
Perry has long counted himself among those with doubts. His skepticism, along with that of dozens of Republicans in the Texas Legislature, has stymied attempts to pass climate-change-related bills in recent years.
Texas environmentalists have long criticized Perry's views. "As Texas experiences one of the most terrible droughts in the state's history, Gov. Perry's comments regarding global warming are irresponsible," said David Weinberg, executive director of the Texas League of Conservation Voter.
They know that we have been experiencing a cooling trend, that the complexities of the global atmosphere have often eluded the most sophisticated scientists, and that draconian policies with dire economic effects based on so-called science may not stand the test of time," Perry writes.
Perry responded: "I do think global warming has been politicized. ... We are seeing almost weekly or even daily scientists are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing our climate to change. Yes, our climate has changed. It has been changing ever since the Earth was formed. But I do not buy into a group of scientists who have, in some cases, been found to be manipulating data."
Perry may have been referring to a controversy at the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Britain, in which e-mails showed climate scientists discussing data flaws. The scientists who sent the e-mails were cleared of any wrongdoing in multiple investigations, and it was determined that there was no deliberate manipulation of scientific data.
Broad scientific consensus exists that greenhouse gas emissions released by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels, helps account for patterns of climate change in recent decades. But this is a source of fierce political debate within the GOP, and Perry's views stand in stark contrast to Romney's. The former Massachusetts governor has repeatedly said that he supports the science behind global warming.
"I can't prove that, but I believe based on what I read that the world is getting warmer," Romney said in response to a question at a June 3 town hall meeting in Manchester, N.H. "And ... I believe that humans contribute to that. I don't know how much our contribution is to that, because I know that there have been periods of greater heat and warmth in the past, but I believe we contribute to that.
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