Bachmann challenges environmentalist approach to energy

AP/Houston Chronicle:

Republican presidential candidate Michele Bachmann claimed Saturday that the United States has more fuel resources than any other country, but blamed what she termed "radical environmentalists" for bottling up American energy policy.

With untapped oil reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and off the nation's coasts, shale oil in Western states, and rich natural gas and coal deposits, she said the U.S. "is sitting on a mother lode of treasure."

"The United States is the number one country in the world for energy resources," the Minnesota congresswoman told a central Florida town hall meeting, arguing that in shale deposits alone the U.S. easily outstrips the total oil supply of Saudi Arabia. "That doesn't even include ... all the oil in Alaska."

But Bachmann said environmentalists were preventing resources from being exploited, leaving the U.S. dependent on energy imports.

...

She is right.

Environmentalist have done more damage to this country's economy and to our national security than any enemy has.