A surging Rick Santorum steered his presidential campaign into Steubenville Monday.

The banquet hall at Froehlich's Classic Corner had seating for 300 people, but the standing-room-only crowd pushed attendance at the rally to over 500.

"We not only need to revitalize this economy and understand what's at stake there, but we have to revitalize the basic institutions of our country: the church and the family," said Santorum.

Santorum said President Barack Obama is pushing a radical environmental agenda that unwisely limits energy production and turns its back on science.

Santorum told voters that science is on the side of those who want to aggressively produce more oil and natural gas in America.

He said the notion of global warming is not climate science but "political science."

"For example, they just shuttered six coal-fired power plants in this country," said Santorum. "Five hundred jobs gone because of a lack of real scientific evidence."

Santorum said Obama and his allies want to frighten people about new oil-exploration technologies so they can get tax money and turn it over to politicians to win elections "so they can control your lives." 

"He (Obama) has this ideology of government centralized control," said Santorum. "Not worried about the interest of people, he's worried about the interest of power.  So he can dictate to people what he believes is best for them."

Ohio's GOP primary is March 6.
 
Santorum also planned several campaign appearances later Monday in Michigan.

Voters there go to the polls on Feb. 28.