Rick Santorum in CNN "State of the Union" interviews during 2015

On Environment: Ethanol mandate brings jobs & energy independence

Rick Santorum, who won the Iowa caucuses in 2012, ticked off what he called a "laundry list" of benefits, including more energy independence and more jobs for farmers. "It is very important for rural Americans," said the former senator from Pennsylvania.

On Energy & Oil: Nothing the US could do will affect global warming

SANTORUM: Is the climate warming? Clearly over the past 15 or 20 years the answer is yes. The question is, number one, "does man having a significant impact on that?" And number two, and this is even more important than the first, "is there anything the United States can do about it?" And the answer is clearly, no. Even folks who accept all of the science by the alarmists on the other side, recognize that everything that's being considered by the US will have almost--well, not almost, will have zero--impact on it given what's going on in the rest of the world.

Q: So, is your answer do nothing?

SANTORUM: Well, if it has no impact, of course do nothing. Why would you do something and with people admitting that even if you do something, it won't make a difference?

On Foreign Policy: Successfully pushed bipartisan national security legislation

SANTORUM: Well, really, there isn't anybody else who's looking [at the GOP primary] that has any kind of significant national security experience. I was eight years on the Armed Services Committee, where I was a subcommittee chairman, worked in a very strong bipartisan level, never had an amendment that I brought to the floor that was ever amended without bipartisan support. So we always did it in a way that was above politics. Secondly, I authored two major pieces of national security legislation, foreign policy legislation: one on Syria, a bill that was vehemently opposed by President Bush when I offered it. And within three years, he signed it, came around to the position that I had taken. The next one was on the Iranian nuclear program; it passed unanimously in the US Senate.

On Immigration: Focus on skilled immigrants; now most are unskilled

SANTORUM: Immigration can be, if immigration is done the right way. Immigration policy in America has to put America and American workers first. The focus of immigration policies [should be] on where we need people with certain skills to come to this country to help gin up and encourage our economy. But, unfortunately, the current legal immigration system is not that. We bring a little over a million people a year into this country on average over the past 20 years. And the overwhelming majority are folks who are lower-skilled or unskilled. And as a result of that, they are filling up a labor pool where there's not a booming growth of unskilled labor jobs in this country. And we're bringing people in who will compete against a lot of American workers. In fact, since 2000, the number of native-born Americans working in the workplace has gone down. There are fewer Americans working today who were born in America than there were 15 years ago.