POINCIANA, Fla. — 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 No. 1 country in the world for energy resources,” the Minnesota congresswoman said at a Florida town-hall meeting, arguing that in shale deposits alone, the U.S. easily outstrips the total oil supply of Saudi Arabia.
But Bachmann said environmentalists were preventing resources from being exploited, leaving the U.S. dependent on energy imports. The Associated Press
