Fact-checking group says Bachmann’s ‘pants on fire’ over drilling claim

The independent fact-checking group PolitiFact is criticizing Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) — a Tea Party favorite who might run for president — over her recent claim that the Obama administration has issued one oil-and-gas drilling permit since taking office.

“It's not even close, and the claim is ridiculously false,” states a short analysis Tuesday evening by PolitiFact, which is a project of the St. Petersburg Times.

The group labeled the claim “pants on fire” on its “truth-o-meter.” Bachmann made the claim in a speech at the Conservative Principles PAC conference March 26 in Iowa.

“Let's look at the number one. Number one. That's the number of new drilling permits under the Obama administration since they came into office,” Bachmann said at the event.

Republicans have intensified their attacks on White House drilling policies amid the rise in gasoline prices, accusing the Interior Department of moving far too slowly in issuing offshore drilling permits, in particular.

But even if only offshore permits issued since last year’s BP spill under new safety mandates are considered — as opposed to the number of onshore and offshore permits since Obama took office — the numbers are far above the single permit Bachmann cited.

Interior has issued several dozen shallow-water permits since implementing tougher guidelines after last April’s blowout of BP’s Macondo well, and since late February has approved eight permits (the number was six when Bachmann spoke) for the type of deepwater projects that were halted under the post-spill moratorium that lifted in October.

Doug Sachtleben, a spokesman for Bachmann, said she was referring specifically to the deepwater permit approved for Chevron Corp. on March 24.

Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, in announcing the permit, noted it is “the first deepwater permit approved for completely new exploration since the deepwater drilling moratorium was lifted.”

“This means that this is the first exploratory well drilled into this reservoir or field, which has never produced,” the department said at the time.

Sachtleben suggested that Bachmann might address the issue differently in the future, noting that Bachmann wants people to understand “exactly” what she is referring to.