Posted By: Madame Fleur

Oct. 14, 2008

“Drill Baby Drill:” Scary words from Sarah Palin, the “Energy Expert”

You might have paused a moment last month when John McCain said that Sarah Palin knows “more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America.”

Really? More than T. Boone Pickens? More than Brian Schweitzer?

Research into that claim reveals that Sarah Palin was not entirely misleading when she stated that energy policy is her “area of expertise.” She is the only candidate with bona fide energy experience. Her understanding of domestic energy policy, however, has been vastly overstated. Furthermore, following her prescription for energy “independence,” given her bias towards oil, would inevitably result in an even greater dependence on the dwindling resource.

Palin served as Chairwoman for 11 months on the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, a board that regulates oil-field production in Alaska. She is often credited with changing the rules on “Big Oil” in Alaska, which garnered high approval ratings and a proud “maverick” designation.

For decades, large oil companies have sat on vast natural gas reserves in northern Alaska. Oil is more profitable than gas, however, so the companies are not in any hurry to tap into their gas resources and build necessary transport infrastructure.

Alaskans, on the other hand, are eager to see a natural gas pipeline built. During Palin’s gubernatorial campaign, she championed an “all-Alaska” pipeline, which would have opened opportunities to build the pipeline without having to wait for oil companies to act.

After her election, pragmatic changes in the project had to be made.

TransCanada is exploring building the pipeline, planning to eventually complete the project in about 10 years. The company would charge producers a tariff.

Several problems have arisen since guaranteeing $500 million in public money to TransCanada for the project, the largest of which is that no clients have signed on to use the pipeline. In fact, the three largest oil producers in the state – BP, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil – have already said they will not use the pipeline, preferring instead to invest in their own.

While the pipeline project won Palin popularity, being the Governor of Alaska does not qualify her as an “energy expert.” Yes, Alaska is an oil-rich state and a major contributor to US oil resources, but oil is just one energy source powering the US. A few weeks ago Palin told Charlie Gibson:

Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that's with the energy independence that I've been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States.

According to factcheck.org, Alaska produced just 3.5% of US domestic energy last year. But even if Palin had said “oil” rather than “energy,” her statement would still have been misleading – Alaska produced roughly 14% of US oil production, with just 4.8% of the crude oil and petroleum supplied to the US in the last few years.

Although she has been widely criticized for factual inaccuracies, Palin is not intentionally trying to mislead the public with distorted numbers and delusions of grandeur. She is unknowingly prejudiced towards oil because of her experience in Alaska. It is her energy experience, in fact, that makes her unfit to create or advise our country’s energy policies.

Alaska is wholly dependent on money generated by the state’s energy industry. Energy finances annual payouts which every Alaskan receives. It provides the primary source of jobs and property taxes in the state, particularly in native villages and the Arctic.

Alaskans have not diversified their economy and the state has consequently failed to develop human capital and ingenuity. Exclusive reliance on the “easy” money generated by fossil-fuel deposits has made Alaskans more dependent than ever on the money created by the energy industry.

With all of her attention going to oil and gas, Palin hasn’t taken the time to learn much about alternative energy sources. In a striking contradiction to what modern scientists have predicted and what T. Boone Pickens’ wind energy project has proven, Palin said:

Alternative energy solutions are far from imminent and would require more than 10 years to develop.

More frightening still is her complete lack of long-term energy solutions:

I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can’t drill our way out of our problem.

Palin’s over-touted energy “experience” is the wrong kind of knowledge for any leader who will be charged with securing a safe and prosperous future for our nation. Between her desire to “drill drill drill” and McCain’s misguided determination to rely heavily on nuclear energy as a means of energy independence, the GOP ticket’s stance on energy is frightening.

There is no shortage of innovative and brilliant energy independence models proposed by people like Brian Schweitzer and T. Boone Pickens. And Sarah Palin’s limited experience with energy misses the point of energy independence entirely: we must find a way to end our dependence on fossil fuels and efficiently plan for a future with renewable energy sources.