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TechnoratiPalin's Connection To 'Big Oil'
ST PAUL, Minn. - Sarah Palin, the governor of Alaska who has shot to prominence as John McCain's choice as running-mate, is best known as a passionate believer in new oil and gas exploration, including in Alaska's National Widelife Reserve - something McCain himself rejects.
![[Palin says the US should (and can) drill its way out of dependence on foreign oil. She has presented herself as a challenger to corporate interests in Alaska, although that is because she believes the major energy companies have not acted swiftly enough in carrying out drilling and pipeline projects in the state.[GALLO/GETTY]]](http://www.commondreams.org/files/article_images/oilpipeline.jpg "oilpipeline.jpg")
But campaigners say she has a mixed record on her dealings with the
oil corporations to which the Republican party has so many historic
ties.
"There is no question that Palin's appointment as the Republican vice-presidential candidate cements the fact that John McCain is the candidate of big oil," Dan Weiss, a senior fellow at the Centre for American Progress, a Washington-based think-tank, told Al Jazeera.
"She supports the agenda of big oil - of more drilling - and she opposes investments in clean and renewable energy," he said.
Palin has presented herself as a challenger to corporate interests in Alaska, although that is because she believes the major energy companies have not acted swiftly enough in carrying out drilling and pipeline projects in the state.
Ending dependence
The Alaskan governor also sees more drilling of US oil reserves as a way of ending US dependence on oil imports from the Middle East and elsewhere."I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can't drill our way out of our problem," she told Investor's Business Daily magazine earlier this year.
In 2006, she acted to renegotiate a deal with Exxon, BP and Conoco Phillips to build a pipeline carrying natural gas from Alaska's North Slope region across Canada to the US.
Palin also pushed for legislation to provide $500m in state funds to the companies to act on the project and eventually agreed to give the contract to TransCanada, a Canadian firm.
She also introduced a new tax on oil companies operating in Alaska and went as far as saying she supported Barack Obama, the Democratic candidate, when he proposed a windfall tax as part of his energy policy earlier this year.
However, her husband, Todd Palin used to work for the British Petroleum oil corporation in Alaska's North Slope region and she has collected almost $13,000 from lobbyists connected to the oil industry, reports say.
And Matt Gonzalez, environmentalist Ralph Nader's running-mate for his presidential campaign in 2008, says Palin has characterised the windfall tax in different ways depending on the audience and that she has not taken on oil corporations in the way she has claimed.
"We know that the oil companies have been making profits that have never been seen before, and the taxes that Palin has introduced are trivial in comparison," he told Al Jazeera.
Environmental concerns
Environmentalists have expressed concern about Palin's views on the causes of climate change."A changing environment will affect Alaska more than any other state, because of our location. I'm not one, though, who would attribute it to being man-made," she said in an interview in August this year.
Palin, a keen hunter, has also threatened to sue the US government over its ruling on having the polar bear designated as an endangered species and opposed protection for salmon threatened by pollution from the mining industry.
The Palin connection has worried campaigners already concerned about McCain's ties to large oil firms that have led to him being dubbed "Exxon John" by Democrats.
McCain has received more than $1.5m from oil and gas interests for his presidential campaign, nearly four times more than the amount Obama has taken, according to figures up to July from the Centre for Responsive Politics.
Lobbying power
At this year's Republican National Convention, the power of the oil lobbying firms was on display.
Haly Barbour, the governor of the state of Mississippi, hosted a lavish party for executives from the American Petroleum Institute to meet Republicans on Tuesday, an event targeted by protesters and activists.Randa Fahmyhudome, a former Bush administration energy official, said Palin was right to call for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
"In America, we are world's number one consumer of petroleum in the world and no-one knows better than Alaskans themselves what is good for environment. We ought to look to Alaskans and Governor Palin on this issue," she said.
"New technology will help us protect the environment while we develop these resources," she added.
50 Comments so far
Show AllNader an environmentalist...? Nader is a phenomenon and so much more than a simple environmentalist. This Rob Winder must have been born yesterday.
What makes people naturally stupid? When there is so much information available from a unprecedented number of sources, why would they choose to be ignorant at their own detriment up to and including their own demise?
I have been studying people for a long time. I understand culture and conditioning. I understand that people can have attitudes that are a product of being fed a lifetime of lies. I still find it amazing that they can be so easily manipulated by seemingly unknown, uninformed, obvious bias.
It must be people will always believe at face value what they have a predisposition to believe. One good argument that the only way we can truly change society and ultimately the human race is in the promise of every new generation.
I wish I had more faith in that possibility and indeed we will survive long enough to see it happen.
g
Another Dick Cheney only this time in a womens body.....
God Help US
Dear gods that is disgusting...
The though of Darth Cheney in drag (but it would answer a LOT of questions about his personality....).
Walk in peace.
Just had a great idea. Let Palin show a video of herself shooting and field dressing a moose or caribou. Once the hockey moms/Hillary gals see the death quiver and all the blood and gore, they'll reconsider their votes. Of course the few NRAers will be in orgasm mode.
If Don Rickles was still with us, he might be calling Palin a "Hockey Puck"!
You have some old man who is controlled and a women who is just stupid to real facts thus controlled. I wonder how this is going to change America for the better? Even the polls are full of it and can't be believed. In fact I am at a point I disbelieve 90% of what I am hearing from both parties.
I agree. I don't believe 90% of what I hear from either party, the media or anyone. Our country has simply made it okay to lie about everything. And all in the name of patriotism, freedom and god. And that's the truth.
If anyone knows the effects of climate change--scratch that--GLOBAL WARMING it should be Palin. An article in the Anchorage Daily News last March lays it out (http://www.adn.com/news/alaska/story/348268.html)
In brief it says this:
--Between 30 to 50% of carbon emissions are absorbed by oceans which impedes mollusks from forming shells and dying off thus leading to far-reaching effects of other sea life in the food chain.
--Permafrost has been thawing significantly. After melting houses, commercial buildings and public structures simply disintegrate in the muck. (I saw such a cabin in 1996 on the Kenai Peninsula). Even the almighty Alaska Pipeline will settle in thawed swamps and disconnect in various areas and it's already estimated to cost $800 million for repairs.
--With temperatures rising faster than anywhere in the U.S., the vegetation in Alaska is changing. Caribou are wandering farther for food and away from normal migration routes with villages with subsistence hunters who'll need to travel farther for meat stock.
Perhaps the worst consequence of global warming in Alaska may be the need to relocate entire seaside villages because of reduced shore-fast ice that normally would protect them from violent autumn storms. As many as 162 communities could be threatened by rapid erosion and flooding.
Then there is the endangered polar bear for which Palin does not care to protect. She stubbornly refuses to accept global warming as man-made.
If there was any doubt the GOP is the Grand Oil Party, Palin's pick for VP puts that to rest.
David Brands
http://freesolaradvice.blogspot.com
Sainted Sarah Palin will no longer be granting interviews, just reading speeches.
Translation: Keep her from speaking off the cuff, because she will actually speak her pro-war, NRA gun-toting, pro-oil, anti-choice, born again mind and queer the whole rigged 'election'.
Walk in peace.
should be an interesting debate with Biden then.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Yeah, I'm not sure if she's dreading it and embracing it. Biden is gnawing at the bit. I believe the election will be won or lost depending on the Biden/Palin debate. That's how stupid the average American is. Then again, there is the Diebold dilemma.
"Everyone wishes to have truth on his side, but not everyone wishes to be one the side of truth." - Richard Whately
According to the U.S. Geological survey, ANWR has about 500 days of oil, based on our current usage. The rest of the untapped, continental shelf deposits should add another 12-14 years. Oil prices have been dropped recently in an effort to avoid changes to oil-futures contracts and to help the industry's pals seeking election. We will never see cheap oil again and we shouldn't. We can pump all we want, but then what? If One believed in Hell, wouldn't sticky black goo pumped from beneath the earth that poisons the air you breathe seem like a gift from Satan?
Well Palin did what she was told , cancelled her appointments today and reported to the AIPAC.
THe USa is so screwed up it isn't democracy anymore folks when the AIPAC control both parties.
Why aren't Republicans, the self-proclaimed only ones who can protect us, calling for nationalization of the oil industry for national security reasons? Seems to me that would make sense in their power-addled world.
One word - Capitalism.
Why should everyone profit when a few can? (except in Alaska!?!)
Palin said Thursday that she has "a big job cut out in front of me running for vice president. "She did not take questions from reporters.
Ah..she is from the Dick Cheney School of Vice Presidency; that elusive 4th level of US government that is answerable to no one.
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats
Read Matt Simmon's 'Twilight in the Desert'.
The more you drill, the faster you extract and refine, the faster you deplete, the sooner Peak Oil arrives and screws the entire technological world.
Walk in peace.
Teri:
They are not even taking an SUV as a trade in even for a new car. Plus less people are driving because of higher unemployment. Bring on The Air car I am signed up to buy one when I can. ( runs on compressed air not a drop of gas but there is a car/diesel model)
I know. That's why I LOVE my bicycle. It runs all day on breakfast!
Read this before you get all excited about the so-called 'Air Car'.
http://canada.theoildrum.com/node/3473
Walk in peace.
When they drive the price up, they buy futures that requires them to buy at todays price next week or next month. etc), when they want to drive it down, they short it, meaning they must sell it at todays price next week.
They win their bets 80% of the time (much higher than the house in casinos) since the big money acts collectively, yes, they conspire to drive prices up or down, and government has a say to make sure it works for them politically (everyone wins). Most of the bets are made on Wall Street and the Cayman Islands where those who buy and sell have no way of taking or making physical delivery.
This also happens with equities, currencies and commodities. It's the liitle guy and their pensions and mutual funds that get fleeced.
Most people don't realize this but Big Oil is interlocked with Banking and Investment firms. They could care less about their share prices at a given moment in time, the shares sold to private investors are money already in the bank, they could careless about shareholders paper profits, and when they want to sell their own shares, they know how to boost the price. When oil drops like it does, the profit drop on the oil side is offset by their profits on their investment banks side.
Free Markets today mean the markets are free to rip off they buyers (consumers). It's nothing but legalized crime. Obama won't change it, he believes in free markets.
As for drilling, first of all, there is no oil shortage. Second of all, Big Oil prefers imports since they can hide the profits in the tax havens and avoid US tax (they do report profits in the US but it is a fraction of their total profits). Third, Bush's order to lift the drilling ban still requires Congress to act. Ask yourself why he did not lift the ban when he had a Republican Congress and his popularity was high. The answer is Big Oil does not want to drill more. They prefer to keep supply close to that of demand, careful to make sure there are no shortages while keeping prices high enough to make them happy. They are globalized, and care not about Americas oil dependence on imports.
Myths, lies and deception. It's hard to keep up with them.
MiMiCcS - Peak Oil is quite real. Russian production is falling. North Sea oil is deader than a haddock. The US went bust in '72. And Matt Simmons details just how vulnerable the Saudi supply is in his book 'Twilight in the desert'. There is no world swing supply. There is no spare production capacity.
Big Oil has known the truth ever since M.K. Hubbart went public. They all admit he was right in private. Hell, even the US Pentagon admits that they will need to control as much of the world's supply as they can if they want to keep running their tanks and airplanes. Even OPEC admitted recently that demand has exceeded supplies.
Yes, I know that the price of oil dropped in the wake of Hurricane Gustav, in defiance of all common sense given the damage (thankfully minor) to the oil infrastructure off LA.
You seem to conveniently forget that oil is a NON-RENEWABLE finite resource. All the previous talk about abiotic oil you used to go on about was caused by faulty data from old wells that had weeped a SMALL amount of iol that had been trapped in the rock matrix by pressure. When that pressure was relived, some of the oil flowed out.
Big Oil is not only linked to finance, but to the ENTIRE Military Industrial Complex, including the major car/vehicle/armored combat vehicle makers. Without the oil companies, the modern chemical corps could not exist either. Or all of the other companies that depend from their poisonous products that make our modern society possible.
Peak Oil is true, so says Big Oil. Ok.
Is it really non renewable? Perhaps. But that does not mean we do not have a lot left. Read Thomas Gold. One thing is true, the world has 2 times as much proven reserves as we did 35 years ago when they told us we were running out of oil.
You only know a reserve is 'proven' until after it is depleted. Otherwise you are just making a very educated guess. This was shown in embarrassing detail when the Caspian Basin Reserves proved to be a disaster, with dry hole after dry hole. Production out of the Caspian has never matched what was predicted or estimated. Yes, with newer technologies the oil companies are recovering more oil than before from older wells. But the problem remains that you are exhausting a finite resource.
Have you read anything by Matt Simmons? if not, do so.
And 35 years ago is exactly when the US domestic production tanked. Right on schedule as predicted by M.K. Hubbart. And Hubbart's predictions continue to be dead on.
And you never denied that world oil production output is dropping. Nice slip there, Minime.
Walk in peace.
This is not true. Proven reserves are those reserves in which you are producing oil and whose estimate is more reliable than reserves from which no oil is being drawn. Proven reserves are 1.3 trillion barrels, while total reserve estimates are almost 3 trillion. The world uses 30 billions of barrel per year. Do the math.
And again, the information is controlled by those who profit from making you think we are running out.
Think of a street full of bars owned by 7 sisters where the price keeps going up because the owners claim to be running out of beer. You can see for yourself, they say, the shelf is almost empty. The Department of Bars says its worried and gives them a depletion allowance and other tax breaks. Invasions of other nations with beer making capability are seen as necessary, but politicians promise they will eventually ease our dependence on beer and promote cola drinks just as soon as the beer runs out. What you don't know is that there is a huge stockpile of beer barrels in the warehouse across town.
There was a company called Bre-X, it had 'proven' reserves of gold that they claimed dwarfed all other deposits of gold in Indonesia...
The bar industry is regulated. Stocks don't have that degree of regulation.
Comparing the reserves of gold 'found' by Bre-X and the reserves of oil claimed by the oil industry is acceptable. Comparing nightclubs and the stockmarket is like comparing apples and oranges, saying they're the same thing as both are round.
Riiiiight.
And the 'beer' just magically appears in the barrels in the warehouse.
No such thing.
Damn, you are gonna be howling and screaming in the street when the crunch really comes, demanding why nobody told you this was going to happen.
Hey, MiMi, when you're not denying global warming we agree line for line. You should show up on these discussions more often.
The free-marketeers (who are not really for free markets but like us to think they are), supply-siders, and corporate capitalists have managed to convince too many gullible Americans that capitalism and Democracy are the same. They are not, of course. Unregulated Reagan capitalism has been the death of American Democracy, and will continue to strangle us until the last of our blood is spilled to make a few billionaires even more filthy rich.
There is no difference between Democrats and Republicans on Free Markets and neoliberal economics. It is tool of Globalization, as is WTO, Peak Oil and Global Warming (I do not deny the warming, just deny that it is due to mans CO2).
Neoliberal economics is an ideology where the role of the state in economic life is reduced in order to free up market forces, by deregulating world trade (WTO, NAFTA), increasing the mobility of capital and labor (export jobs to China and Mexico), and eliminating social welfare and secirity and replace it with corporate welfare and security (fascism). The application of neoliberal policies to the international economic order became known as globalization, or capitalism (fascism) without borders, which will lead to One World Government. All governments need a currency, including the coming global government.
Global warming is the issue that will allow them to get the world on carbon credits and carbon taxes. This is just another form of currency that will be run by the global bankers who will control the global government, thats why they talk about making skepticism a crime. Henry Kissinger says in America anti-globalists are terrorists. Hence, those who oppose the tools of Globalization, like global warming, are also.
Jimmy Carter and Paul Volcker started the ball rolling with neo-liberal economics, Reagan took it to a higher level, and Clinton went further, and then we have Bush. But Jimmy Carter was the first of the Trilateral Commission Presidencies, founded by Brzezinski and David Rockefeller. Obamas adviser is Brzezinski, and you will see carbon caps and credits under Obama. Perhaps you will think it s a good thing, but not for long.
I do post on these issues, but usually do not join discussions.
I think carbon caps and credits are baloney - they don't reduce pollution, they only spread it around or spread the penalty for polluting around. [On GW, I do not think trying to determine if man is to blame is relevant. By cutting emissions, man can help. By waiting "for the science to come in" and failing to take action immediately, like our current "leaders", we are killing ourselves. But we can argue about that in the relevant discussions.]
I never claimed to understand economics, and I appreciate your insights. But I can see that capitalism is not Democracy and striving for a corporatist/capitalist state/world is just the next series in a long chain of master/serf ideologies. In a free-market world, labor is just another commodity to be exploited, and the social contract is torn up with the Constitution.
Thank you. That all makes sense. You're adding to my education.
I agree 100% free markets per neocons means legalized crime. They rationalize such bad faith BS because of religion: "We are God's chosen good guys and therefore..."
She is so over her head it is a joke. Who better for the neo right to control when McCain dies of old age. Alzheimer and an idiot what a team to lead the country. It will take women 10 years to get over this.
She may be over her head, but she doesn't appear to know it this fall. She appears to be the perfect closed-minded, right-wing religious fanatic for the job. (the job is screwing everyone on the planet except America's faithful military industrial complex).
Ain't y'all privy to this fact: unless America's economy stays super strong, the godless communists in China will take over the world or worse, the Muslim extremists. I think Palin is just stupid enough to believe all of that neocon horsesh*t. Religious fanatics can rationalize anything.
She won't know she's over her head until St Peter says, "Get the ____ outta here meanie."
btw- did anyone catch the complete lack of logic behind palin's comment about domestic drilling, hurricanes and gas prices.. something to this effect:
that if we are not dependent on foreign oil ( domestic drilling).. then the price of oil will not go up when there is a hurricane.
BUT... isn't that back-assward? first.. hurricanes most often strike in the gulf.. where.. oh my .. there are drilling rigs and ports/ refineries (?)
SO-- wouldn't we be less impacted in terms of oil prices and hurricanes.. if our oil came from elsewhere...?
she would have been smarter by far ( and she just lost most of my intellect-respect with that one).. by using global conflicts as an example.. no-brainer..
i suspect they were so eager to turn possible hurricane gustav into a political selling point that they never really examined the logic of the statement..
i'm no expert.. bur from what I was following, the biggest reason for falling prices is that there is actually a surplus of oil/gas on the market at this point. the high prices caused americans to change their driving habits, thereby buying less actual gallons of gas... that.. and i am not entirely sure i understand how it works.. but the speculators/ stock market that affect the price of gas by "betting" (?word) futures (?)...
There is no "surplus" oil/gas out there. The only reason prices are "low" has to do solely with "election season". Once the "election" is over, the real prices of crude oil will shoot back up. IOW, get ready for $5/gallon gas.
Even oilman & gasman T. Boone Pickens publicly admits we can't drill our way out of this.
As for the lower prices at the pump, my theory is that the Republicans got the oil companies and speculators (virtually all Republicans themselves) to let prices fall.
Conspiracy theory? It's more likely than the the theory that prices fell because Bush lifted the drilling ban.
"Conspiracy theory? It's more likely than the the theory that prices fell because Bush lifted the drilling ban."
And what about the repugs 'theory' that prices were falling because they (in congress) wanted to stay in session to push for 'more drilling'? Yet when hurricane Gustave was rolling in prices kept steady. When it didn't do the damage thought to happen, then prices started to drop. That's where this all caves in on my brain. Things like this is what points to the 'speculation' theory that they like to deny.
Speaking of speculation - ya think the earlier price drop may have been because the democrats were talking of cracking down on on this mischief?
Watch the movie "Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room" It tells it all.
But, in a nutshell, am I correct or wrong?
I think it's because Wall Street hasn't got a clue about what is really going on in the wider world.
Yes, I know that they have access to all kinds of data and talking points and current events, but they are just acting to aid the party that will do it's damnedest to ensure even more record profits for their corporate masters.
How many people know about the amount of US military hardware floating off Iran, or how quickly the EU acted to placate an understandably pissed Russian Federation, just to keep the gas flowing this winter?
curious question- where was Palin during the Exxon valdez fiasco? From what I listened to in Greg palast's talk about the valdez.. the real crime there: when approached the locals of the area only asked that Exxon ( BP?) protect the environment. they asked for no monetary compensation etc.. Exxon lied profusely about having the correct gear to contain oil spills on the ships, emergency equipment in the port (?) for cleanup.. and properly working GPS equipment onboard. A drunk captain, who was off-duty was NOTHING of the true relevance of that environmental debacle/ sin/crime.
But- that was Alaska.. and not all that long ago.. has anyone tried to track any information, comments or such that Palin might have made? That oil spill has got to be about the worst environmental disaster to data.. and that is literally right in her backyard.. what has she been doing about fixing it?
and note to the drill fanatics.. doesn't the oil from alaska go to russia anyway? how does that help us drivers..?
and has anyone been looking into the connection of Palast to the Alaska secede group? talk about hypocrisy... but then there's no shortage of that in the RNC..
March 24, 1989 was the date of the spill. Without looking at any other websites I'd say she either was in a beauty contest, or fishing.
Of course last february she gave an interview about the issue and apparantly claimed that only 11,000 gallons of fuel were spilt over 2,000 acres. Realists will point out that it was 10.8 million gallons of crude over a much larger area...
Unforgiven: thanks for pointing out that my "hard earned money" is used to buy crude oil mainly from Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela! Wannabe Palin insulted these countries by equating them with the dictatorships of the Middle East.
The notion that the price of crude oil will become "independent" of what it costs on the world market the moment the last drop has been imported from abroad shows that McCain/Palin are totally oblivious to reality. In fact, it is perhaps even too friendly to call them cretins. Do they really assume that BP, Shell, Exxon, and the remaining "seven sisters" will subsidize cheap "homemade" crude in the US when they can make more profit elsewhere? Do they really believe that the countries of the Euromarket will sit still if we are at a great competitive advantage because they must import almost every drop of oil? Do they really believe that the world will become "safer" then?
I'm not an economics major (or even minor) but I've been trying to educate myself.
As far as price of gas, it matters not where you physically get your oil from. The less distance it has to travel, though, the better. Thus after our minuscule reserves we get most physical imports from Canada, Mexico and Venezuela because they are the closest. To figure the price you have to imagine every barrel pumped, everywhere in the world going into a vast pool. That is supply. What the world requires is demand. So it's just basic math from there to compute that "drill here, drill now; just drill-drill-drill, damn-it" only adds so much to that total global pool. And it doesn't seem to be enough to matter, price-wise.
But it does keep us on the same path which seems more and more to be a downward spiral.
And as far as the argument that we're sending $billions overseas, We do anyhow. Just look at every other commodity. Clothes, toys, agriculture - you name it. Gee, isn't that what 'globalisation' was supposed to be all about? Well, we know how that's working out.
The problem for drilling more is that the reserves under the auggie are harder to extract than from under the sands of Arabia. We're also not really sure that there is enough supply under the sea, or under the us national parks, to replace what's already been burnt. To be sure, we could mine the oil; like the Albertans do, with all the happy environmental risks that are being born by the natives in northern Canada. But that's not going to reduce the cost of a tank of gas, indeed as the cost of production (and the odd bribe here and there) goes up, so too does the price of a tank.
Note, that the price of making the commodities like clothes, toys and agricultural products also depend on the availability of oil as a fuel and fertiliser. As the price of oil goes up so too does everything else. I had a prof in university who was convinced that without the use of oil, and to a lesser degree the use of coal, we'd still have an economy based on slavery; morality be damned.
I agree.
"The problem for drilling more is that the reserves under the auggie are harder to extract than from under the sands of Arabia. We're also not really sure that there is enough supply under the sea, or under the us national parks, to replace what's already been burnt."
That's just it, oil (and derivatives) are a powerhouse of energy. And we have been most fortunate to have it. But it is finite and a number of new holes is not going to affect the big picture.
"Note, that the price of making the commodities like clothes, toys and agricultural products also depend on the availability of oil as a fuel and fertiliser. As the price of oil goes up so too does everything else. I had a prof in university who was convinced that without the use of oil, and to a lesser degree the use of coal, we'd still have an economy based on slavery; morality be damned."
Why do you think these overseas commodities are so cheap? They are using labor so cheap that it might as well be slave labor. The corporations can't do it here anymore, so it's done elsewhere.
See, a big downward spiral - any way you look at it. Corporations make out. We make do.
"I beg to disagree with any candidate who would say we can't drill our way out of our problem," she told Investor's Business Daily magazine earlier this year.
That is exactly what Levi said to Bristol....as he was drilling HER....lol
Seriously, I agree with Plain, you CAN drill you way out of you probloems....if your problems are you need more work for drillers, and more money for Big Oil....won't make a fart in a hurricane's difference to the energy problem though...
Oh, Palin also called an oil pipline "God's Work"
psy-cho!!
"The only means of strengthening one's intellect is to make up one's mind about nothing, to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts." - John Keats