Bachmann Decries Lack of Progress Toward Energy Independence

Last October 1^st, America celebrated Energy Independence Day when Congress smartly allowed the ban on off-shore drilling to expire.  I had spent the previous months, calling for an all-of-the-above energy strategy and I was thrilled that we were taking this important step toward increasing the supply of American-made energy.
 
However, one year later, we have made no progress.  First, the Obama Administration put an abrupt halt to plans already in place to open up the outer continental shelf and public lands in Utah to energy exploration.  In fact, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar has announced it could be 2012 before the administration even decides whether it will consider moving forward with these important actions.
 
To make matters worse, instead of increasing the supply of American made energy, Congress is pushing a national energy tax, cap-and-trade, that would increase the cost of energy and kill jobs.  In fact, a study by the George C. Marshall Institute, which reviewed a wide range of studies and analyses of the cap and trade legislation, found that the price of energy paid by the American consumer would jump:  5-15% for electricity, 12-50% for natural gas, and 9-145% for gasoline.  The White House’s own numbers show that cap and trade would cost the average American family an additional $1761.
 
The American people shouldn’t have to wait for another summer of $4-gas for the Administration and the majority in Congress to do the right thing.  Energy independence is a matter of fiscal prudence and national security.  And, an all-of-the-above energy strategy – which includes exploration of off-shore oil and natural gas and shale oil deposits in the Mountain West – is the way to achieve real energy independence.


Bachmann Writes About Endangered Concept of Property in New Academic Text

Recently, I was asked to contribute an essay for a collection called, “Indivisible:  Social and Economic Foundations of American Liberty,” published by the Heritage Foundation.  The topic I wrote about was property rights, their basis in the Constitution, and the regrettable dissolution of those rights under those who control Washington today.

The full text of my article can be found here: 

But, here’s a small piece of it that gets to the meat of the problem today:

Today, we are witnessing the dissolution of the dividing line between private and public use. Consider, for example, the actions of the Administration’s Auto Task Force. Government has kicked private business out of the board room and installed itself as CEO, CFO, and board of directors of American automobile manufacturing companies. The government is making decisions about who to hire and who to fire, how much to budget for advertising, and what car lines to continue to manufacture.

In the case of Chrysler, the Auto Task Force has turned basic American legal principles on their head, by leapfrogging the unsecured debts of the United Auto Workers (UAW) ahead of secured debts of legitimate bondholders. In bankruptcy, secured creditors get preference because they loaned money on the contractual promise that if the debt was unpaid they would get specific property back. The Administration may have considered its political promise to the UAW to supersede that contractual promise; but in doing so, it has set an ugly precedent.

Government is grossly overstepping its boundaries by substituting its own interest over that of property owners. And, at some point the soft glow of “change” is going to fade and someone is going to demand to know where the U.S. Constitution gives government the authority to do this. We have made a critical, devastating wrong turn, and it is incumbent upon us all to restore our nation to the principles of our founding documents and the intentions of our Constitution’s Framers who valued the role and free will of the individual over an imposing government.

From that constitutional principle, the United States has developed a set of rules and regulations that allow individuals not only to attain a piece of physical property that they can call their own, but also to use that property to expand their wealth and increase their capital.

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