Michele Bachmann
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Alaska trip leaves Bachmann more pumped about ANWR drilling
A trip to Alaska's north slope left US Representative Michele Bachmann even more convinced of the need to drill for oil in the Artic National Wildlife Refuge. The 6th District Republican joined 10 other freshman members of Congress on a four-day tour of energy sites in Colorado and Alaska. "It would be the fastest, easiest, least environmentally invasive way for us to be able to add oil to America's energy supply," Bachmann told Minnesota reporters in a conference call from Washington DC upon returning from the journey. Bachmann said flying over the protected area, and the existing productive oil fields in Alaska, made it clear to her that the targeted area inside ANWR area is just a tiny spot in a vast expanse of land. "The part we're talking about drilling on is 2,000 acres," Bachmann said, "It's like a postage stamp on a football field." Since June, when prices at the pump first surpassed $4 per gallon, Bachmann has asserted that prices could be cut in half in the United States would commit itself to more energy exploration. In addition to drilling in ANWR, Bachmann advocates opening up more off-shore drilling leases in the outer continental shelf, plus exploiting the oil locked in huge shale deposits throughout the west. Most experts contend it would take more than a decade to get those sources up and running, and the supply of those fossil fuels would still be outstripped by global demand. The government's own best estimate, as expressed by the Department of Energy Information, is that the oil in ANWR would only lower prices at the pump by a few cents ten years from now. "Around the world we're consuming oil four times faster than we're discovering it," Michael Noble of Fresh Energy told KARE 11, "Getting the last few drops of oil out of the earth is not going to change the price of oil in the near term or the long term." Fresh Energy is a nonpartisan Saint Paul think tank dedicated to promoting cleaner, more sustainable alternatives to oil. "We need smarter cars, cars that run on better fuels," Noble remarked, "Cars that run on electricity, cars that are amazingly more efficient. We need more public transportation." Noble said Americans need to treat oil as a finite resource, one for which there's plenty of competition no matter how much is produced in this country. "It's the demand for oil which drives the price," he argued, "It's not the supply. The supply is finite." Bachmann rejects the very idea. "I refuse the notion that we have entered an era of scarcity when it comes to energy," she said Tuesday. She thinks those drivers feeling the pinch at the pump should redirect their rage from oil companies to Congress for artificially limiting exploration. "It's almost like you have a kitchen full of little children that are hungry and want to eat and the pantry has a lock on the door," Bachmann said, "But the pantry is filled with food." Her likely opponnent in the upcoming election, Democrat Elwyn Tinklenberg, told the Associated Press Tuesday that Bachmann's strategy is "just not credible by any measure or standard." Tinklenberg, who has been endorsed by both the DFL and the Independence Party, opposes drilling in the ANWR. And he'd support more off-shore drilling, but only in those areas oil companies already have under lease. He rolled out a plan Monday to invest in infrastructure and public tranportation, as a means to lowering demand for imported oil. He urged the current members of Congress to approve a Democratic bill designed to reign in speculation in oil markets. As for the notion of lowering speed limits, which many believe would have an instant impact, Bachmann said it's worth considering. However, she contends conservation is only one part of a larger blueprint for independence. "The problem is not that the American consumers are driving too much, the problem is the United States Congress."
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