Michele Bachmann (R-MN): Caribou Will Love Oil Drilling ‘Because Of The Warmth Of The Piprline"

[RedEarth]

During a radio interview on Wednesday, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) attempted to argue that drilling for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) would be beneficial for Arctic wildlife. Bachmann claimed that drilling would cause not only an “enhancement of wildlife expansion,” but that the area around oil pipelines would also “become a meeting ground and ‘coffee klatch‘ for caribou”:

“Some suggestions are that perhaps we would see an enhancement of wildlife expansion because of the warmth of the pipeline,” she said. <…> The pipeline has now become a meeting ground and “coffee klatch” for the caribou, she said.

Bachmann is not alone among conservatives in pushing this narrative of drilling being good for caribou. Rush Limbaugh said on his radio show last week that “the caribou have multiplied ’cause they like the warmth that surrounds the pipeline.” On Tuesday night, National Review’s Jonah Goldberg made a similar argument on Fox News:

GOLDBERG: People don’t realize that at Prudhoe Bay, where they have been drilling for 30 years, the central Arctic caribou herd has increased fivefold since they started drilling up there. Some people say it’s because they get to hide from the bugs. It’s a little easier for them. But people say it’s because of the lack of hunting. But it is not dangerous to the caribou up there.

http://thinkprogress.org/2008/06/20/bachmann-caribou-coffee/

[dflprincess]

1. She's probably confusing real caribou with the Caribou Coffee chain

and proves, once again, that she is batshit crazy.

[alarimer]

2. If global warming is melting the permafrost

how will they drill in ANWR anyway?

[11 Bravo]

3. If they name a pipeline after George Bush ...

Michele Bachmann will fuck it.

[Rick Myers]

4. The woman is completely BAT SHIT crazy!!!

"A meeting place for caribou?"

No wonder she thinks Jeebus talks to her...

[Berry Cool]

5. Just because Michelle feels warm cozying up to Bush's pipeline

is no reason the caribou will feel the same way about an oil pipeline.

[PBS Poll-435]

6. She is SUCH a perv

:scared:

[Spooky_D]

7. And all the water head repukes will believe it too...

N/T

[Bjorn Against]

8. I think Michele Bachmann has been feeling a bit too much warmth from the crackpipe

[seafan]

9. There is serious mental illness occupying our government.

June 19th, 2008 – 5:27 PM by Emily Kaiser

Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has joined the daily barrage of elected officials talking about ways to tackle rising gas prices. And it’s not just gas guzzlers who she says will benefit; Alaskan caribou could, too.

On the same day that President Bush voiced support for allowing offshore drilling and continued to push for drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR) to help alleviate gas prices, Bachmann suggested that drilling in Alaska might be good for the environment.

“Some suggestions are that perhaps we would see an enhancement of wildlife expansion because of the warmth of the pipeline,” she said during her Wednesday appearance on WCCO-Radio’s “Jack Rice Show.”

Bachmann noted a caribou population increase, from 2,700 to 30,000, since the Trans Alaska Pipeline System from Prudhoe Bay was built in 1977.

The pipeline has now become a meeting ground and “coffee klatch” for the caribou, she said.

.....

Bachmann said moving forward quickly with this legislation could bring gas prices back to $2 a gallon or less in four years, but Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California is preventing a vote on the bill. Democrats have said Republicans are simplifying a complex energy debate to appeal to cash-strapped voters.

To persuade Pelosi to change her mind, Bachmann is seeking to enlist her constituents. She said she wants Minnesotans to send their gas and energy bills to her and she will “put them in bushel baskets and deliver them” to Pelosi to prove how much Americans are paying for the spike in prices.

<<<Too bad Ms. Pelosi didn't prevent a vote this week on the bill for FISA telecom immunity for illegal wiretapping, and yet another blank check war bill that will fund Bush's illegal war and occupation well into 2009.>>>

In 1991, President George H.W. Bush said of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, "The caribou love it. They rub against it and they have babies. There are more caribou in Alaska than you can shake a stick at."

San Francisco Chronicle, August 28, 2005