Palin calls for 'clean break' from Bush on energy policy

It was billed as a major policy speech on energy policy, a way for Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, a novice on the national stage, to showcase her expertise.

And there was a lot of that. Speaking at a solar energy company in Toledo, Ohio, Republican vice presidential candidate Palin talked about her fight against the big oil company monopoly in Alaska and her progress on a nearly $40-billion natural gas pipeline that she said would help nurture U.S. energy independence.

We've shaken things up in Juneau. Whatever the good ol' boys are running these days, it's not the state of Alaska. And that's the kind of serious reform that we need in Washington, because the stakes for our country could not be higher.

But then she pivoted, and blamed the Bush administration in part for the oil crisis, saying that "Americans blame Washington for doing next to nothing about our energy problems, and they are right."

Arguing that "three decades of partisan paralysis on energy is enough," she made no mention of the Bush family connections to Saudi Arabia. But she sure took aim at the results, saying:

By relying upon oil from the Middle East, we not only provide wealth to the sponsors of terror, we provide high-value targets to the terrorists themselves. Across the world are pipelines, refineries, transit routes and terminals for oil we rely on. And Al Qaeda terrorists know where they are.

Palin also took a shot at her counterpart, Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden. Noting his opposition to coal mining, she parodied the McCain campaign's signature "Joe the Plumber" line. "With or without the green light from Joe the Six-Term Senator," she said, "we will make clean coal a reality."

-- Johanna Neuman

Photo: Bill Pugliano / Getty Images

Comments

[Nancy]

Sarah Palin has the expertise of the average adult parent in America.
She has no more policy expertise to offer than the average citizien.
Joe the Palin should not be given any weight in any thoughts shared across America, the same as any ordinary citizen. She has no knowledge depth in anything she talks about.

[crossroads]

This imbecile is McCain's energy expert, and she's been spouting all over the airwaves that Alaska produces 20% of US energy, when the government Dept. of Energy says it's 12%. Beyond her incompetence to lead, or communicate, she gets the most basic talking point wrong. It will be years in the wilderness if McCain loses, and Palin will never find her way out of that wilderness, no less ever be elected President. Time to go back to the witchdoctor at your church for some more voodoo.

[Elinor]

Is this supposed to be a serious policy statement. It sounds like a bunch of slogans strung together and makes as much sense as a Palin rally. A lot of pundits have been talking about Palin as the future of the GOP. If that is the case, the future looks pretty bleak. The McCain campaign snatched a little known-little, very inexperienced Governor from a sprasely settled state. GOP-ers you will have four years. Do better next time. Americans are counting on you.

[ted]

Pursuing energy independence by encouraging local development is a necessary time consuming process. In the short run it will have little impact in reducing energy demand and our reliance on imported sources because of the ongoing increase in consumption. We need an effective governmental conservation policy to reduce consumption of energy. Cap and trade targets the reduction of carbon in the industrial sector but there seems to be little focus on the individual consumption of energy. This could be accomplished with a conservation fee on energy consumption that would be returned to equally divided among consumers. The winners would be those that take personal steps to save energy.

[Terence Jackson]

I already know Ms. Palin can deliver a speech written by someone else with the aid of a teleprompter. I'm still waiting for a press conference. Is that really too much to ask?

[Mike from NYC]

Clean coal is a myth. Despite numerous and exhaustive research there is still no way to sequester the carbon dioxide given off by the burning of coal. There is not enough room to store the CO2 and the repercussion if something went wrong in the storage of the CO2 could be devastating. For the past 30 years Congress and the Presidents sat on their hands and did nothing about energy and Regan ignored and turned back many energy policies that would have decreased America's reliance on ME oil. The last time Congress and the President did anything was in the 70s during Carters' administration. Bush, since the day he took office, stopped or tried to stop any energy policy from being enacted. Finally Bush relented and now we have increased CAFE standards. It should be known that a group of automobile manufacturers, led by BMW, are trying to have the standards repealed or amended. The car companies need to be stopped.

[Johnny]

She is too partison and divisive to accomplish anything in a democratically controlled congress.

Vote Obama!

[Marlen]

I love that Ms. Palin talks about security issues all the time, yet what occurred in Wasilla during her watch? The number of meth labs increased from 9 to 42 - and what was she doing? She was at the library trying to ban books! Wasilla is called the meth capital of Alaska - a dubious title at the least.

[David L. Hagen]

Transport fuel is the greatest challenge we will face in next few decades. The US imports are increasing at 2.6%/year. Non-OPEC oil appears to have peaked and is declining. The West is now critically dependent on oil exports from OPEC. The price of oil spiking to $145/bbl is but the foretaste of our critical dependence on imported oil and the catastrophic choke hold we have allowed OPEC to have over our economic future.

With OPEC's internal consumption rising rapidly, exports will likely decline 6%/year. That will lead to an import/export oil shock of 8%/year or higher to the US and other oil importing countries.

That coming oil shock is an existential threat to our economy.

Gov. Palin is the only candidate who has any experience with oil and energy, and the only one proposing any serious measures to address getting off of oil imports.

Obama's proposals are woefully small and he does not appear to understand the magnitude of the task. His 1 million hybrid cars sounds impressive, but it is less than 1% of the challenge ahead.

For your own future, for your children and your retirement, it is critically important to recognize this coming crisis and elect Palin as the only one with the common sense and executive experience capable of addressing this task.

[BKrause]

A horse without a saddle. A canoe without a paddle. A ranch that's got no cattle. A snake without a rattle = Gov. Sarah Palin, standing like Gen. George Patton in Coppola's movie behind an American flag as if she represents any real America most of us know and love.

[David L. Hagen]

Transport fuel is the greatest challenge we will face in next few decades. The US imports are increasing at 2.6%/year. Non-OPEC oil appears to have peaked and is declining. The West is now critically dependent on oil exports from OPEC. With OPEC's internal consumption rising rapidly, exports will likely decline 6%/year. That will lead to an import/export oil shock of 8%/year or higher to the US and other oil importing countries.

That coming oil shock is an existential threat to our economy.

Gov. Palin is the only candidate who has any experience with oil and energy, and the only one proposing any serious measures to address getting off of oil imports.

Obama's proposals are woefully small and he does not appear to understand the magnitude of the task. His 1 million hybrid cars sounds impressive, but it is less than 1% of the challenge ahead.

For your own future, for your children and your retirement, it is critically important to recognize this coming crisis and elect Palin as the only one with the common sense and executive experience capable of addressing this task.

[WAKEUP]

wont hold a press conferance, go on Meet teh Press/Face the Nation, but will appear on SNL,
What a Joke

[Rightvoter]

The ill-fated, dishonest, unintelligent, arrogant, biased, ungodly, divisive, and capriciously and unilaterally imposed policies of this historically worst administration, have been ruining the image of this great nation, inside and outside. They definitely destroyed the economy here and abroad, with the lost of too many soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians, the mortgaging of our children for future generations, and the bonus trillion dollar deficit.
With the unconditional support of the ultra-conservative well intentioned Christians, the greedy minority but powerful controlling riches, and the super lobbying-corrupting special interests, the Bush’s gang also destroyed the core/basis and reputation of the Republican Party for many years to come.
Those are a too high prices to pay. They are the tragic legacy of the big mistake of this century: the election of incompetents just because they are in the same (GOP) party or because they call themselves "new born Christians."
Being a Republican, I’ll never will vote for a GOP candidate anymore in my life. I love Jesus and his teachings. I hate dishonesty, corruption, vicious unfunded attacks to honorable citizens, racism and discrimination of any kind.
Mr. McCain is the champion of the unethical wave of the “say anything and do whatever it takes to win” secular approach. Unfortunately, the Grand Old Party is not grand anymore because it has been contaminated with too many members like Bush and Co., of course his clone Mr McCain and his heavy load Sarah Pallin.
They have no regrets, they are spiritually dead and intellectually short. Their evilest selfishness do not allow them find solutions to the real problems of the nation. They only want power to destroy with wars, misinformation, money, personal attacks, and lies. They are indifferent to the suffering of all our fellow citizens underestimating the intellectual capacities of most informed Americans.
Another honest and sincere well-informed white-Christian-AMERICAN voting for OBAMA

[Dax7]

Sadly, this is what the Republicans have led us to. For 8 years they have lashed us to the fate of the oil barrons and despots, and poured our soldiers and treasury into the sands of the Middle East.

Killing our brave soldiers, wasting our tax dollars, destabilizing world economies, driving up the price of oil by 250-500% -- AND WEAKENING AMERICA.

Since when does stupidity pass for patriotism? Just as Bush wrecked our country by choosing mediocrity, so goes McCain. Send this cluck back to the boonies, and let's start rebuilding and strengthening the country we love.

God Bless America. And protect us from fools.

[truthtopower40]

This was billed as a major energy policy speech by the woman hailed by McCain as one of the foremost experts in the nation. And this is all we get???

A tired re-hashing of Washington’s failure to address the issue in any serious way in three decades, the usual “energy independence” mantra, and a half-baked proposal for clean coal technology research with a $2 billion price tag. (I thought McCain/Palin had proposed a spending freeze for everything except defense and veterans’ affairs — and clean coal technology, and $300 billion to buy up all the bad mortgages, and special needs children, and… and…)

No mention of any real policy to increase the development and use of non-fossil fuel energy, despite the fact that the speech was delivered in a solar energy components factory. No mention of how we are going to build the dozens of nuclear power plants (I think the number was about 40…) McCain promised, nor where they will be sited, who will pay for them, how we will deal with the waste issue. (McCain deals with this point by pretending it is a non-issue. Either he is being dishonest or he simply doesn’t understand the problem. And mentioning the fact that the Navy has had nuclear powered ships for decades does not indicate otherwise.) No mention of the need to re-engineer the electricity grid as we develop wind and solar power to commercially viable mass consumption levels. No mention of the need to rethink our public and private transportation, urban planning, food production, and waste management policies — not to mention a few more. Not a word about how conservation is a necessary part of ANY real energy policy, nor of the simple fact that there is NO scenario under which independence even from Middle East oil within the foreseeable future is possible without it.

I could go on, but suffice it to say that I see nothing in this speech (as reported) to suggest that Palin even begins to understand the issue of national energy policy, far less that she has any serious new ideas to bring to the table to address it.

[foglifter]

How Sarah Palin got a solar company is beyond explanation. She sued the federal government for listing polar bears as endangered, stating that protecting them would interfere w/oil exploration- and yet, she has stood up to Big Oil? Complete B.S. Drilling in the Arctic or offshore would take at least 10 years to yield any usable oil, if any is even found, and even then, its effect would be to lower gas prices by at best 4 cents/gallon. And there is no such thing as clean coal- Obama and McCain have been bought by the dirty coal industry on that one. For anyone believing anything Palin has to say about clean energy there is a bridge for sale up in Alaska

[John E. Beckman]

It looks as if the puerile writers have had their say above. This year we have seen buckets of simple slogans, leading the way, "Its Time For Change", I worked for a political polling company exactly 40 years ago, and we came up with that slogan for Geoff Whitlam a Labor Party Leader (Democratic Party Equivalent) in Australia, he won in a land slide. End the policy of supporting the American Devils in their foreign wars, national health care system, better social security, welfare etc. Sound familiar. A loaded "socialist". Well he soon ran out of money to pay for all these great ideas, and would you believe he had secret meeting to get loans from Saudi Arabia to continue to pay for these social welfare excesses. Anyones who is in charge of a home budget knows you can't spend more than you have. I see people come into my small business to pay a $30 bill go through 20 credit cards until they find the right one that has $30 of credit available. If you look at the US federal budget after all the fixed expenditures (entitlements) and National Defense there is only 15% of the whole pie left to play with. Out of this though roads, bridges, dams, national parks, FIA etc etc must be covered. So unless revenues increase there really isn't the money to do all we wish we could do. Even Ronald Regan with his Budget Specialist who knew the budget line by line couldn't find the billions needed to solve Jimmy Carters expenditures, the only avenue left was increased revenue. Ask any one who has started a business, big or small, it takes capital to get going, and besides having the money to cover the costs of the initial start up, you have to have enough money to keep going until revenue starts which can be from 3 to 24 months. So to say wealth starts from the bottom up is just not feasible in reality. The bottom doesn't have the capital. The capital comes from family and friends who already have it, the banks won't lend it to you, the small business administration won't lend it to you, so you either have to save it yourself or go to the others who have managed to save it. Bring back good paying jobs. Bring back what jobs. 30 years ago shoe manufacturing left the US, then it was socks, then steel, the shirts, pants, sheets, shipping, autos, computers (ie IBM sold laptops business to China), Walmart manufactures most of its products in China, Medicine, you can get open heart surgery for 1/10 the price in India including airfares compared to the US. Now thousands of Indian lawyers are contracting to do legal work for $25/hr compared to $125/hr in the US. Bruce Springsteen said in a song 25 years ago, "The mill has closed, and the foreman says the jobs are going boys and there not coming back". Thats the hard truth! We have be come a consumer society, and the only jobs available are handling what we consume, not creating things. So attack Ms Palin, attack her idea of trying to make us energy independent, but remember 1 thing when you go to get that loan to start your business the very first thing your uncle will ask is what experience do you have! Someone has to be there to teach you first, and currently only one person has had any experience with energy in this campaign and thats Sarah Palin.
John E. Beckman

[tom]

The public's gut instinct on Sept. 11 was a connection to gasoline. Links between the terrorists and Saudi Arabian charities were made some time later. Why has George Bush been so reluctant to make a national push for energy conservation? Why was he initially opposed to tax breaks for hybrid vehicles? Any energy plan must have at it's core, conservation programs. Additionally, we need a gasoline rationing plan ready to go should the price run up above $5 or $10 per gallon. Palin's remarks lack depth, she needs to take a few weeks off the campaign and think about national and international issues, before she speeks again. Furthermore, she needs to clarify her relationship with the Alaska Independence Party. Does she support Alaska independence from the U.S.? What will she do if Alaska secedes, while she is president?

[lwaa]

Of course governor Palin wants reliance on Middle East oil reduced. The more drilling they do in Alaska the more money goes into the pocket of each resident who lives there including the entire Palin family. Does being govenor of a state with lots of oil really make her an energy expert? NO! How much effort have you seen folks from Alaska put into reducing our need for oil? NONE. Each person in the state benefits as long as they continue to drill there.

Palin is about as much of an energy expert as she is a foreign policy expert
(she can see Russia from her back yard ya know).

[Arizona]

The conservative base that defends Gov. Palin is laughable at best. The American public has easy access to information that challenges your very understanding of reality, let alone issues. Please help us stop laughing so hard at you, please use google or any other search engine.

[Aaron L]

This is a lame story... the writer is the only one who mentions Bush. Talk about a non story. What qualifies the other commenters to say someone else is not qualified? Less Taxes For ALL no more wastfull spending and insentives for clean energy...

[dMiner]

She is going to clean up government like she did in Alaska where they just found her guilty of abusing her office?

What a wacko!

Woo Hoo!

[polanyi independent]

Those who talk about Bush ties to the Saudi Royalty either do not realize or conveniently overlook the fact that Obama does too.

Remember the check that Giuliani returned to a Saudi prince after 9/11? Well...that is the same prince who enabled Obama's acceptance to Harvard through Khalid al-Mansour. Mansour also facilitates the business interests of this prince's "Kingdom Holdings" in Africa. And guess which and how much of American media this prince has partially acquired?

The terms are above; google is at your fingertips. You should value your own research as much as anyone else's. Anyone else may never tell you.

We must remember that significant portions of ALL corporate media are owned by investors who are likely to be biased in regards to certain aspects of American foreign policy.

A very telling indicator of this influence was the segment aired yesterday between an interviewer named Shep and Joe Wurzelbacher, who agreed as an individual with a strong opinion voiced by another individual.

Those dependent upon any one media source for information must remember that "straight news" or even "editorial" positions can CHANGE, bait and switch, according to the agenda of those controlling it. Thus, one must search for TRUTH---if truth seems suddenly obscured through a trusted source, trust your feelings and think about what may be getting spun or buried.

This may be the most important thing that Joe the Plumber, in his own way, is telling us.

Notice that Joe does not endorse ANY particular media filter, but encourages people to look at primary resources--voting records, speeches and statements in context/contrast with other speeches and statements, etc. Joe reminds us--and, significantly, TRUSTS us to research for ourselves. Love him or hate him, Joe is providing the public with a valuable reminder here.

Any individual who genuinely hungers for Truth must have the courage to allow themselves to search for it and to recognize it when it manifests.

[NinaK]

Really, Sarah Palin wants "a clean break from George Bush on energy"?? Aren't George Buse, John McCain, and Sarah Palin ALL for drill, drill, drill??

George Bush = We MUST drill for oil!! We MUST drill for oil!!!
John McCain = My friends, drill here, drill now!! Drill here, drill now, my friends!!!
Sarah Palin = Drill baby drill!!l! Drill baby drill!!

George Bush, John McCain, and Sarah Palin all singing the same refrains from the same page; they are ALL in the same boat going over the huge waterfall, and Palin wants to bail out at the last minute!! FIVE days BEFORE the ELECTION, she wants to break away from GWB? This is too, too funny!! This is too, too hypocritical!! Yes, it's totally true, McCain and Sarah will DO AND SAY ANYTHING TO TRY TO WIN THIS ELECTION, WON'T THEY?? P - A - T - H - E - T- I - C!! Is this what is known as, LAST-MINUTE D - E - S - P - E - R- A - T - I - O - N?? Sure can smell it!!!

[Douglas Bland]

So, John Beckman, think you invented the phrase "Time for a Change"? I'm afraid that goes back longer than 40 years ago, probably as long as there's been elections. And because it didn't work in one election in Australia, it won't work anywhere else? Imagine that, a candidate not living up to campaign slogans! That reasoning is a bit suspect. And Sarah Palin has experience with energy, so we should elect her? George Bush and Dick Cheney had experience with energy, and look where that got us. At the risk of sounding "puerile", time for change.