Palin States Her Mission
September 23, 2008
The GOP Vice-Presidential nominee explained today what her objectives will be if she gets to Washington D.C., ”My mission is going to be energy security and government reform. And another thing near and dear to my heart, it’s going to be helping families who have special needs and children with special needs. And we’re going to be pushing for innovative cures for diseases.”
Sarah Palin focused on increasing domestic energy supplies and her experience working on energy reform while in Alaska, “My job has been to oversee nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas. And as your Vice-President, I will help John McCain implement his all of the above strategy for energy independence for the United States of America.”
Both Palin and John McCain have touted the statistic that Alaska provides 20 percent of the domestic energy supply. But, the non-partisan group, Factcheck.org says it is not true. Instead they say it is much lower, “Alaska’s share of domestic energy production was 3.5 percent, according to the official figures kept by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.”
Drill, Baby, Drill
September 19, 2008
Energy is essential in America, and 40% of what we use comes from oil and 23% from natural gas. That comes to about 21 million barrels of oil and 64 billion cubic feet of natural gas each day. Domestic oil production is declining–down nearly half since 1970–so imports are up, from one-third of what we needed in 1970 to just under 60% today. So we need to discover and access more of our own energy resources.
The good news is that huge resources of oil and gas exist offshore: recoverable oil and gas on America’s Outer Continental Shelf comes to some 85 billion barrels of oil and 420 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and there are another 10 billion barrels of oil in the North Slope of Alaska. If full access to these resources were permitted, together they could replace America’s imported oil for some 25 years, and no doubt reduce the price of oil, gas and gasoline.
Wading through the energy-environment debate
September 15, 2008
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — A Republican politician from oil-rich Alaska was never going to have an easy time convincing environmental groups she was “green” no matter how much time she spent hugging trees while hunting.
What do voters expect a governor from an energy producing state to do when wading through an energy-rich landscape littered with environmental minefields?
Is Palin foe of big oil or a new Cheney?
September 15, 2008
Reuter’s - As governor of Alaska, she raised taxes on oil companies and clashed with them over a planned pipeline through her state. But on the fundamental issues of drilling for oil and the environment, her positions look very much like those of the man she seeks to replace: Vice President Dick Cheney.
Palin, a 44-year-old mother of five whose nomination has ignited John McCain’s campaign for the presidency, is a vocal supporter of drilling for oil in a part of northwestern Alaska inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Her position strikes a chord at a time when high gasoline prices are hurting the U.S. economy. Republicans broke into chants of “Drill, baby, drill” at their national convention. Read the whole story here
Prudhoe Bay crisis fuels debate over drilling in ANWR
September 14, 2008
The holes were barely bigger than a five pence piece, the amount of oil that seeped through them negligible. But US politicians may come to look at 6am last Monday morning as a pivotal moment in the nation’s energy policy.
It was then that BP workers began turning off the taps in Prudhoe Bay, shutting off fuel from America’s largest oil field as the potential impact of the corroded pipes became clear.
From that moment, events unfolded quickly.
A few hours later, oil prices had spiked to record levels, global stock markets wobbled and a few days later the state of Alaska, which relies on the flow of oil to pay its teachers, firefighters and government workers, was forced to instigate a hiring freeze. There was talk of a “crisis” in the state’s fragile economy, while all down the east coast of America, analysts feared yet another hike in the price of petrol, already standing at record levels.
In the event, BP has said it will keep open half of the field, pumping 200,000 barrels a day, but the damage has already been done.
“ANWR would have certainly have offset this problem in Prudhoe Bay,” he said.
