Michele Bachmann thinks Rick Perry’s energy plan sounds familiar

Rep. Michele Bachmann offered faint praise of rival Rick Perry’s energy plan, saying that she has long called for the increased production of domestic energy that the Texas governor proposed Friday.

“I want to thank Gov. Perry for endorsing my energy plan, that he’s coming out with today,” Bachmann told reporters after speaking to more than 100 people at Dordt College, a small Christian university.

She said she had long called for increased domestic production as a way of creating jobs and reducing reliance on foreign nations.

“All summer long, I’ve talked about my energy plan, but really during my entire time in Congress, going back to summer of 2008 when I was on an American Energy tour, it was up in [the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge], I’ve been talking about these common sense solutions for American energy. It’s an all-of-the-above energy plan utilizing American resources.”

Bachmann chided Perry for proposing to use presidential executive orders to accomplish goals, and said such thinking represented a pattern of abusing authority by the Texas governor that was similar to President Obama.

“We’ve seen President Obama do that by putting into place EPA regulations through use of executive order. That’s a misuse of power and authority. Unfortunately, we’ve seen Gov. Perry do that with Texas, whether it was [mandating a vaccine for young girls against a sexually transmitted disease] or now saying he would deal with Obamacare through executive order.”

“We need to use the constitutional process,” she said, saying she would accomplish her energy plan by having it approve by the House and Senate and having the president sign it.