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Bachmann has a plan to slash gas prices
Her DFL opponent, Elwyn Tinklenberg, said the energy legislation offers simple political solutions but lacks a comprehensive, environmentally sound strategy.
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Gas prices could be slashed in half if Congress would open up the country's Arctic slope, deep-sea reserves and oil shale fields for exploration and drilling, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann said Monday.
Bachmann, a Republican who is running for a second term in Congress, went to a service station in Woodbury to discuss her plan to expand drilling and to provide "immediate and lasting" relief to families and businesses struggling to cope with gas prices hovering around $4 per gallon.
The plan, contained in a half-dozen bills that Bachmann has cosponsored, also includes opening new oil refineries (three of them at closed military bases) and incentives to invest in alternative energy sources such as wind, nuclear energy and clean coal-to-liquid technology.
"It's a plan that has the broad support of the American people. Only the out-of-touch congressional leadership stands in the way," Bachmann wrote last week in a letter to the Stillwater Gazette.
But Elwyn Tinklenberg, Bachmann's DFL challenger in the Sixth District congressional race, called her proposal "a simple, political solution to what is obviously an extremely complex problem" and said that a comprehensive energy strategy is needed that reduces the nation's dependence on oil.
"She talks about this being a pocketbook issue, but the only pocketbook that this really benefits is the oil companies," Tinklenberg said.
According to Bachmann, her plan would push gas prices back to $2 per gallon and create millions of jobs. The only way to do that is to increase the nation's energy supply, she says, but congressional Democrats are blocking the use of deep-sea reserves and the vast Western fields of shale oil. New technology would allow exploration without damaging the environment, she says.
Tinklenberg said he's not against all drilling, but he's not convinced that the Arctic region can be explored in an environmentally responsible way. Instead, he said, he wants to see the federal government encourage research and development of alternative energy sources and more energy-efficient standards for cars and other technology.
Bachmann said her plan would lead to immediate relief at the gas pumps, because the market deals in futures. Tinklenberg disagreed, saying that conservative estimates indicate that increased oil supplies wouldn't significantly lower prices for several years and would leave the country's larger energy problems unsolved.
Kevin Duchschere • 612-673-4455
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