Palin Ignored Chance to Promote US Energy Independence
As Governor, Sarah Palin has successfully maintained Alaska’s energy independence, but at the same time, she has essentially ignored the mainland’s energy concerns.
Time Magazine reports that as Governor, Palin supported the direct export of enough clean natural gas to supply 1.4 million Americans for two years.
In early 2007, an Alaskan liquefied natural gas plant owned by Marathon Oil and ConocoPhillips requested Department of Energy permission to export some of the fuel. Palin entered the discussion in April, but only to ensure that Alaska’s natural gas needs would be included in the deal.
>>More on energy independence at RG&B
An agreement was reached in January this year, and never once did Palin suggest that the natural gas should instead be used in the lower 48 states. Instead, 100 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas will be exported from Alaska’s Cook Inlet to Japan and other Asian countries, where the fuel sells for double what it does in America.
But this is business as usual for Alaskan natural gas: the West Coast did not have a facility to store liquefied natural gas until May 2007 when a nearly-$1 billion plant was completed along the Baja coast of Mexico. The plant is connected to the CNG pipelines that run throughout the western United States.
The project was well-known and anticipated by the energy industry, but Palin—“one of the foremost experts in this nation on energy issues”—never considered the plant as a possible destination for Alaska’s gas.
The idea that Palin is an energy expert was laughable already, but this decision showed a brash disregard for American energy independence, a cause which she champions nearly every day on the campaign trail.
Photo Credit: Bobster1985 on Flickr under Creative Commons license.
It is not new that politician says anything to win. In the case Sarah Palin, she goes around the country talking about Obama policies and he don’t have enough experiences. Someone should question Palin policies. Oh…if you do question her policies…Palin want give you the correct answer anyway….Ummm…She will wink at you instead and say you got me this time.
Teract,
Governor Palin is only being criticized in this article because she has made energy independence “for the country” one of her main talking points. I don’t know that this particular finding was the smoking gun the author hoped for, however. This was just big business. Selling energy to foreign countries doesn’t ensure energy security. It makes money for your state/ constituents, plain and simple. She could have sold the energy to some of the lower 48, just at half the cost (the thrust of the article).
I didn’t know that governor Palin added a suntan bed to the mansion. I DO know that, if she did, it had everything to do with vanity and nothing to do with not seeing sunlight. Only the most northern parts of Alaska (i.e. Barrow) don’t see the sun for extended periods of time. Even there it’s only for two months not six. They also have two months where they have no night.
I’m tired of people posting stuff they know nothing about in an attempt to blindly defend there candidate of choice from criticism. Read a book or two before you put your thoughts out there for the world to see.
“Congress Ignored Chance to Promote US Energy Independence” is a more valid headline since the outer continental shelf contains abundant natural gas resources. Oh thats right, their afraid of oil slicks.
Rocky Mountain States would be another major producing region of natural gas, and its a lot closer to Baja, but we can’t really go after that either.
But its Palin that ignores the chance to promote US energy independece. Riiight. Palins job was to promote Alaska, not the US. Congress is suppose to be promoting the US.
Yahoo, a fluffer for news organizations.
Regardless of any fully intelligent reason, I highly doubt any of these reports are changing the constituents of these political wrecks.
So none of the candidates are perfect, now what? Taking purely superficial things into account, McCain will never win, no matter how hot the woman is by his side. Palin is another Quayle, but with a much more annoying voice.
Then there’s Obama. At first his family really annoyed the crap out of me, but his tactics are more long-term. He’s probably going to screw some things up, but like nothing compared to McCain. His attention is on the future, and the Pres. of the U.S. needs to consider this more than lining his own pockets. Above all this, the person running this country needs to truely care about the people his/her choices impact. Some people are just more concerned with the power, and abuse it for their own personal gain.
Voting for someone bc they will lower your taxes is rather superficial. Voting for someone based soley on financial gain (specifically tax) has gotten us into the financial mess we are in. Everyone just wants the most from each candidate, and that shows in the demographics of the supporters. With this in mind, I just have one thing to say to the McCain/Palin supporters. You are part of a very small group of people, of which that group is getting smaller and smaller every day. Your greed will ultimately catch up with you in some way. When that day comes, you will experience a level of enlightenment that will hopefully bring you some empathy that reaches beyond the walls of your house(s) on the hill. If you really care so much about your family, you would care about everyone else’s families. We are all connected (A.C. Ross).
Thanks for your time.
A
Obviously a biased writer. She is probably supposed solve all the lower 48s energy issues.
I can’t help but think that there is a good chance with John McCain being 72 that Sarah Palin could become President of the United States. The thought of her as president is extremely difficult for me to imagine and if it happened would be a political nightmare. She just doesn’t have the “stuff” to be president and I have a difficult time believing that anyone else could really believe that she does. Wake Up People!!
Although the U.S. is rapidly becoming as socialist as the European Union, we are still, at our roots an ecomonmy built on capitalism. In a free market economy is it not just plain good business sense to sell your product where you can legally get the best price? And if you don’t what happens? You go out of business.
Why is it even news worthy that Governor Palin should support free market capitalism?
Can we not manufacture much/most of the goods that are made in China and sold at Wal-Mart? Is it wrong, immmoral, and/or unethical that in order to get the best price for their customer that Wal Mart buys goods from China? Evidently most Americans don’t think so. They show very little concern that their huge dollar volume of purchases of these foreign goods cost American jobs as well as add bilions to our trade deficit.
Why do they do it? Free-enterprise-choose-pocket-book-over-country mentality. It’s capitalism. We’re still capitalist at least for the time being, so why the big deal.
Maybe much of the press understands just how well Sarah connects with the average American. And it just drives them mad that they are so out of touch.
“I’m tired of websites posting shit they know nothing about and criticizing her for it.”
I agree.
I’m still waiting for McCain to say…’My friends I was just kidding.”
Yet another example of her hypocrisy.
By the way, here is a website that shares all the Sarah Palin dirt to support Barack Obama!