What do you think about Sarah Palin's energy 'expertise'?

Question

A lot of conservatives are trying to portray Sarah Palin as some sort of energy expert. Here are some Palin quotes.

She thinks it's God's will that a natural gas pipeline be built through Alaska.

"I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,"

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/02/palins-church-may-have-sh_n_123205.html

She seems to share McCain's disdain for renewable energy.

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

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/aug/16/alaska_gov_wants_tap_oil_resources51051/

She thinks oil can solve our energy problems.

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

http://www.omgili.com/newsgroups/talk/environment/C49F02AA10FDCleonard78spprimusca.html

Do you think the portrayal of Sarah Palin as an energy expert is justified?

http://climateprogress.org/2008/09/03/note-to-media-pork-queen-palin-is-earmark-expert-not-energy-expert/

Answer 1

Have you ever read "Being There" by Jerzy Kosinski?

Answer 2

She is exactly the opposite of what is needed at this moment in history. McCain either never meant what he said in the first place, or he totally sold out to the far right.

Answer 3

"I think God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that,"

I think it irrelevant what her religious beliefs are since we are supposed to have religious freedoms.  I agree with her efforts to get that line built as would anyone with common sense.

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

Duh.  Only a fool would argue with that.  Of course it is true.  Leftist love to throw that obstacle about ANWR that it would take 10 years before we see a drop of oil yet ignore it when pushing their unproven or theoretical alternatives.

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

Someone saying we can't drill our way out of problem is like someone saying we can't eat our way out of hunger.  Again, it is common sense.  

Do you think the portrayal of Sarah Palin as an energy expert is justified?

She certainly knows more about the issue than Barack.  I thinks she has the correct attitude, to explore, find, and utilize available resources in a responsible way.  This is an idea that is foreign to the clean and articulate Barack and his bimbo VeeP Biden.

Answer 4

I think her plan is what the people want.

Answer 5

Well at least she is trying to do something that could help the problem. There is also something else. Fossil fuel is a renewable energy source. Where do U think our present supply of fossil fuel came from. Plants capture the sun's energy and store it as oil in the seeds.The plants made our original oil and as long as they have CO2 they will continue.

Answer 6

Do you really believe that ONE politician can set the agenda for the entire country? If this is so we could save a lot of money by just eliminating both houses of Congress-- and let one person run everything.

OPPS------ that's a monarchy form of government! :)

Answer 7

Some of you Libbies crack me up!!  Dana, you disappoint me on this one.  You might spend a little more time vetting.

Renewable Energy Fund



HB 152, 'Creating a Renewable Energy Fund', is finally a law. Governor Palin signed HB 152 into CHAPTER 31 SLA 08 Friday May 23, the same day she approved the $25 million dollar appropriation for Fire Island!

The fund will begin with an initial $50 million appropriation with the intent to include an additional $50 million for the next four years, totaling a $250,000,000. To assist the Alaska Energy Authority in putting together the program's regulations and making funding regulations, a seven member advisory committee with 5 members appointed by the Governor and one spot for both a senate and house member will be created.

This is a great start towards providing Alaskans with more opportunities to develop increasingly affordable and efficient renewable energy technology, which has the potential to convey significant economic, health and environmental benefits throughout Alaska.

Please write to Governor Palin THANKING her for her support.

Alaska Center for the Environment is Alaska's largest home-grown citizen's group working for the sensible stewardship of Alaska's natural environment. With 7,000 dues-paying members from around the state, Alaska Center for the Environment is your voice for public lands conservation, clean air, clean water, and livable places.

Answer 8

She is by far the best of the four, she actually will do something and is a not a insider.  We complain how Washington is out of touch with the rest of the nation yet we keep electing those who are out of touch.  She is not a insider, and has no personal agenda whether you agree with her or not she has the tenacity to get something done and is not concerned about polls. This is a breath of fresh air in a captital that reaks of group of people who accomplish nothing and are full of hot air.

Answer 9

oh no if she wins then the myth about us dying out in 2012 will be true!!!(sarcastic)

no I think I will go with obama then since he is the lesser of two evils !

I do not think she knows that what she is denying is true she cannot deny the solar power it has to help us now. Its far more better to have that then that stupid electricity or is it because if when we pay the bills that goes to her pocket? LET me guess yes right?

God will not help her if she is not caring for the animals he created them before us so we should care.

NOPE not an expert she just wants everyone to think she is smart and knows by putting these sayings in probably taught and schooled to say that.

Answer 10

Let's just all inflate our tires more and we won't have to even worry about energy independence.

Answer 11

while i dont think that sarah palin is an expert on energy itself, she does have a large amount of common sense regarding the energy issues. can we drill our way out of the problems we have now? in the short term and the intermediate term yes. long term? no. but drilling now and getting that oil to market will give us time to finish developing alternative forms of energy, and get them to market. it also gives us time to change our economy over from an oil based economy to one based on a number of alternatives.

the infrastructure is simply not in place for alternative energy cars at this time. it will take anywhere from 10-15 years and a lot of money to get a good start getting the required infrastructure in place. until that time we will have to depend on oil for our energy needs.

Answer 12

What energy expertise? It would be accurate to say oil expertise, along with her husband. You are correct, there are a lot of alternatives, but Palin is a one trick pony with regard to energy (the oil pony).

Answer 13

With gas at 3.50 + a gallon, I'll take her views over nut cases any day.

and yeah renewable is a joke,  can you say joke boys and girls?

Sure you can.

Answer 14

T. Boone Pickens is invested heavily in Texas wind power, wouldn't you promote it. I think Obama is the one with the energy policy, with all his hot air, who needs oil.

Answer 15

not at all. We cannot keep relying on non renewable sources of energy to power our country. While I agree that natural gas is a better alternative than oil it is still not the answer, we only hold approx 3% of the total natural gas reserves in the world so it seems to reason that we should explore other avenues. I believe that she says what she says about Alaska because she is theGovernorr of that state and the primary roll of a governor is (arguably) to build up the economy of their given state. She has no background in science or domestic energy policy on a nation wide scale; she just knows that it will bring more money to her state. And the fact that she brings God into the equation is very insulting. Idon'tt recall God saying anything about supporting a capitalist society that helps make the rich richer and the poor poorer.Statisticallyy and historically speaking economies that rely on the extraction of natural resources are very fragile and don't do very good jobs of sharing the wealth (ex. people that work in the oil/gas industry in Alaska make a lot of money but peopel working in unrelated fields do not). I dont think the portrayal of her as being an energy expert is, by any strech of the imagination, accurate. Her (as well as McCain) view on energy policy is to make more and drive prices down. I think these people have forgotten that oil/nat gas are both finite resources; the price of each increases as supply decreases (each will run out one day and prices will increse until that point is reached). We as americans must now demand the use and development of cleaner and more renewable sources of energy (it should have began years ago). The bottom line is this; people who have no real experience but call themselves experts usually have no idea what the h**l they are talkin about. It is time for a change in our domestic energy policy, and the only person that will likely deliver this is Obama and Biden (I say this even though I have historically voted republican, but not this time)

Answer 16

All of her arguments make good sense.  I hope she wins and puts an end to the alarmist rants by doing as she preaches and proving them wrong.  She should also act to stop your country's contribution to such things as the IPCC which, it is well known, is a leftist political action force rather than a scientific undertaking.  And acting to finally hold Al Gore and Jim Hansen responsible for their actions would be welcomed by everyone worldwide who shares in Earth's real concerns.

Answer 17

Dana, we know you aren't going to vote for McCain/Palin so I think you should stop asking questions about them. I also don't feel they have a chance of winning this election, which disheartens me, since I know McCain strongly disagreed with a lot of President Bush's policies. Everyone also needs to remember that we have a Democratic Congress right now, so a lot of peoples upset at the Government should be focused on them, but as always it's the President that gets the brunt of societies angst.

Edit:

From her speech last night I can tell she has a great grasp on what the US needs to do to get off of foriegn oil. I feel Obama is the one trick pony. And this isn't the first time I heard the McCain campaign mention the things she had mentioned in her speech.

"And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.

That pipeline, when the last section is laid and its valves are opened, will lead America one step farther away from dependence on dangerous foreign powers that do not have our interests at heart.

The stakes for our nation could not be higher.

When a hurricane strikes in the Gulf of Mexico, this country should not be so dependent on imported oil that we are forced to draw from our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

And families cannot throw away more and more of their paychecks on gas and heating oil.

With Russia wanting to control a vital pipeline in the Caucasus, and to divide and intimidate our European allies by using energy as a weapon, we cannot leave ourselves at the mercy of foreign suppliers.

To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of world energy supplies ... or that terrorists might strike again at the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia ... or that Venezuela might shut off its oil deliveries ... we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas.

And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we've got lots of both.

Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems — as if we all didn't know that already.

But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.

Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines ... build more nuclear power plants ... create jobs with clean coal ... and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal and other alternative sources.

We need American energy resources, brought to you by American ingenuity, and produced by American workers."