By Kate Galbraith, NY Times Green Inc.
Michele Bachmann, a Republican Congresswoman from east-central Minnesota, has some fighting words for President Obama’s energy plans.
According to the Smart Politics blog at the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance, Ms. Bachmann, when asked about President Obama’s cap-and-trade plans on a local radio station last Saturday, responded:
“I want people in Minnesota armed and dangerous on this issue of the energy tax because we need to fight back. Thomas Jefferson told us, “Having a revolution every now and then is a good thing,” and the people – we the people – are going to have to fight back hard if we’re not going to lose our country. And I think this has the potential of changing the dynamic of freedom forever in the United States.”
Ms. Bachmann also expressed some skepticism on global warming, saying, “The science is on our side on this one, and the science indicates that human activity is not the cause of all this global warming. And that in fact, nature is the cause, with solar flares, etc.”
It’s not the first time that Ms. Bachmann has expressed skepticism about climate change, and her latest comments are reminiscent of Oklahoma Sen. James Inhofe, who has accused Mr. Obama of perpetrating “environmental thuggery.”
Her views were also echoed earlier this month by Michael Steele, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, who asserted in a radio appearance: “We are cooling. We are not warming.”
However, Ms. Bachmann seems supportive of the energy revolution taking place on Minnesota’s own soil. “We must look beyond our traditional sources of energy to diversify our supply and find innovative solutions to help protect the environment,” her Web site says.
Indeed, Minnesota has aggressively pushed for the development of clean energy. The state currently requires diesel fuel to be blended with 2 percent biodiesel, and is soon to raise the “blend ratio” to 5 percent. Minnesota also will require 25 percent of its electricity to come from renewable sources by 2025.
(ILoveCarbonDioxide.com Note: Info on the evils of biofuels can be found here)