Presidential candidate Bachmann promises gas under $2.00/gallon if elected

How's this for bold? Congresswoman Michell Bachmann, a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination who won the Ames Straw Poll last weekend, has just stated that one thing we'd get with a Bachmann Administration is – ready? – cheap gasoline. According to Politico she said:

The day that the president became president, gasoline was $1.79 a gallon. Look at what it is today. Under President Bachmann, you will see gasoline come down below $2 a gallon again. That will happen.

Today, said the average price for a gallon of gas is $3.58 per gallon, says the American Automobile Association.

The devil, of course, is in the details, and Bachmann did not explain how she would get the price of fuel down. She's a supporter of drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but doesn't seem to actually understand how much oil experts think is there. Then there's the fact that opening up ANWR wouldn't reduce prices as the pump quite that quickly (if at all). In 2008, the Energy Information Administration said (PDF):

Additional oil production resulting from the opening of ANWR would be only a small portion of total world oil production, and would likely be offset in part by somewhat lower production outside the United States. The opening of ANWR is projected to have its largest oil price reduction impacts as follows: a reduction in low-sulfur, light crude oil prices of $0.41 per barrel (2006 dollars) in 2026 for the low oil resource case, $0.75 per barrel in 2025 for the mean oil resource case, and $1.44 per barrel in 2027 for the high oil resource case, relative to the reference case.

Oh, and then there's this. Still, a return to $2.00/gallon probably sounds good to some voters, right?

Regardless of where you sit on this issue, you can check out Bachmann delivering her gas price pledge in a brief video after the jump.

The video meant to be presented here is no longer available. Sorry for the inconvenience.