Michele Bachmann: Durban Climate Change Conference about redistribution of American money

Michele Bachmann fielded questions about UN Agenda 21 and global warming at a December 16, 2011 town hall meeting in Orange City, Iowa. The Minnesota Congresswoman and 2012 Republican presidential candidate took the opportunity to share her views on the Durban Climate Change Conference in South Africa. Bachmann also reiterated her plan to eliminate the EPA.

Here is a transcript of her remarks: 

Voter: I would like to know what your thoughts are on Agenda 21

Michele Bachmann: Yes, for those who don’t know Agenda 21 is essentially something that came out of the Rio Conference.

It’s about 20 years ago. 

Anyone know Al Gore?

Al Gore was there at the Rio Conference and the whole goal is really about global control.

It’s essentially a one world government view where there’s political body and the United States would have to subsume our sovereignty into a global body, but more than that, we would also have to give away our wealth.

So the wealth of the United States would be redistributed to other countries.

As a matter of a fact, that’s what the Durban Conference was about in South Africa this weekend, also about redistribution of American money.

And so I want you to know very clearly where I stand on this issue.

I oppose Agenda 21. 

I oppose putting the United States in an international political body where we lose United States sovereignty.

I don’t agree with that.

I don’t agree with a lot of the goals of the UN.

And I don’t agree with taking your money away from you and redistributing it across the world, because I believe in America and American sovereignty 

Voter: What do you believe about global warming? 

Michele Bachmann: What I believe is that we should not have a political agenda.

So much of the political agenda really in response to your question on Agenda 21 was this Durban Conference in South Africa this last weekend.

It was about global warming.

That was the basis of it.

But that is being used as a political pretext to have the United States tax us with a national energy tax, take that money into the federal government, use it to build a big federal government, but also use it to redistribute our wealth across the world.

I disagree with that. 

I absolutely disagree with that agenda.

And so I think that you’ve got to follow the science. 

What does science say?

If you look at the sources of carbon dioxide, you’ve got to look at the sources of carbon dioxide.

Is it human activity?

Is it bad what’s being produced?

And I think you’ve got to look at the science and let the science make the decision.

And that’s not what’s happening now.

Now it’s politics that’s driving this decision.

Voter: What would the EPA look like under your administration?

Michele Bachmann: Sure.

What would the EPA look like under my administration?

There wouldn’t be one.

The EPA would be gone, because we already have – there’s already 50 EPA’s in the United States.

There’s one here in Iowa.

It’s best if Iowans deal with clean air and clean water, and set your standards for your state, and let all 50 states…

Who in this room wants dirty water and wants dirty air?

Okay, I think that’s kind of the answer, isn’t it? 

Iowans are very common sense people.

I don’t want dirty air and I don’t want dirty water, but that’s not what the EPA is about.

They’re about killing jobs right now. 

And for farmers, they’ve been a disaster for farmers as well. 

I’ll not only shut down the EPA I’m going to shut down the Department of Education. 

And I have a few others in mind too that are going to go.

That’s not grandstanding. 

I mean it.

You can take that to the bank.

In the past, Bachmann has employed less tempered language when discussing climate science. On December 11, her campaign issued a statement describing global warming as an “unproven theory”.

C-Span has a full video of Michele Bachmann’s town hall meeting in Orange City, Iowa.

Photo of Michele Bachmann courtesy of IowaPolitics.com via Wikipedia Commons

Michele Bachmann: Global warming “unproven theory”

Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign has issued a statement describing man-made global warming as an “unproven theory”:

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney have both endorsed the unproven theory of man-made global warming and supported big government policies like cap-and-trade as a result.

The Minnesota Congresswoman raised the issue during last night’s ABC News Yahoo Iowa Republican Debate.

“If you look at Newt/Romney, they were for cap and trade,” Bachmann claimed, according to a transcript posted by the Chicago Sun-Times. 

Newt Gingrich, the former House Speaker, responded with his usual retort. 

“I have never-- I have-- I oppose cap and trade, I testified against it, the same day that Al Gore testified for it. I helped defeat it in the Senate through American solutions. It is simply untrue,” he said.

Factcheck.org disagrees. They found:

It’s true that Gingrich has never favored the approach taken by Democrats, but he said in 2007 that he would “strongly support” cap-and-trade if combined with “a tax-incentive program for investing in the solutions.”

Furthermore, Gingrich said in House testimony in 2009 that he still might support a cap-and-trade system covering “the 2,000 most polluting places,” if packaged with incentives for nuclear power and “green coal,” among other things.

Judging by the latest poll numbers, GOP primary voters are not all that concerned about Gingrich’s past support for bipartisan solutions to global warming. The latest nationwide Gallup poll shows him in first place with 35 percent. Consistent climate change deniers Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann trail far behind, tied at 6 percent.

Video of Bachmann's "Newt/Romney rant" courtesy of ABC News:

Michele Bachmann on climate change and green jobs

Congresswoman Michele Bachmann revisited the issue of climate change while answering a question about her comments on drilling in the Everglades during the September 7, 2011 GOP Presidential Debate. The debate was hosted by MSNBC and Politico at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California.

Brian Williams, NBC News: Congresswoman Bachmann, a question about energy, back to that subject for a moment. Were you quoted correctly… and do you stand by it… as wanting to drill in the Everglades in Florida?

Michele Bachmann: The question was asked of me about that. And what I said is we have American energy resources all across this nation. And, of course, we would do it responsibly. That was my response at the time.

And on this issue on human… human activity as being the cause of climate change, I think it's important to note that the president recognized how devastating the EPA has been in their rulemaking, so much so that the president had to suspend current EPA rules that would have led to the shutting down of potentially 20 percent of all of America's coal plants.

Coal is the source that brings 45 percent of America's electricity. What we're seeing is that a political agenda is being advanced instead of a scientific agenda. And this is leading to the… to massive numbers of jobs being lost.

The president told us he wanted to be like Spain when it came to green job creation, and yet Spain has one of the highest levels of unemployment. The president is bringing that here in the United States. And I think tomorrow night, when the nation tunes in to the president, I'm afraid that we won't be seeing permanent solution. I'm afraid what we'll be seeing are temporary gimmicks and more of the same that he's given before.

Photo of Michele Bachmann courtesy of Gage Skidmore