Sarah Palin's much-anticipated VP acceptance speech on Wednesday night included a lot of energy talk -- and extensive criticism of Barack Obama.
"We are expected to govern with integrity, good will, clear convictions, and a servant's heart," she said. "I pledge to all Americans that I will carry myself in this spirit as vice president of the United States. This was the spirit that brought me to the governor's office, when I took on the old politics as usual in Juneau ... when I stood up to the special interests, the lobbyists, big oil companies, and the good-ol' boys network."
Palin emphasized her call to expand domestic drilling, and called for more nuclear, "clean coal," and renewables.
"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," she said. "Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines and build more nuclear plants and 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."
She talked up her moves as governor to suspend the state fuel tax, and said she "championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress." She also repeated the line from her introduction speech last Friday about the "Bridge to Nowhere" -- "I told the Congress 'thanks, but no thanks,' for that Bridge to Nowhere" -- a claim that has been since disputed. Palin was actually for the bridge before she was against it.
"If our state wanted a bridge, we'd build it ourselves," she said in tonight's speech. Actually, the state still got the federal money, and they're using millions of dollars from that pork to build a road meant to link up with said bridge that doesn't yet exist.
She also talked up the tax she imposed on the oil industry in her state. "When oil and gas prices went up dramatically, and filled up the state treasury, I sent a large share of that revenue back where it belonged -- directly to the people of Alaska," she said. "And despite fierce opposition from oil company lobbyists, who kind of liked things the way they were, we broke their monopoly on power and resources."
She talked about the natural-gas pipeline she has pushed for as governor and her call for increased drilling, both of which she asserted will bring the country closer to energy independence.
"I fought to bring about the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North American history. And when that deal was struck, we began a nearly $40 billion natural-gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence," she said. "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."
She continued on the topic of energy security, delving more into the issue than any other speaker so far at this convention.
"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," she continued. "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," she said. "And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: we've got lots of both."
And later in the speech, "What does [Obama] actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet? ... American needs more energy -- our opponent is against producing it."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/29/AR2008022903390_2.html
There is almost no way to mine coal cleanly without greatly increasing the cost, and considering that the freshwater supply of the southeastern states downstream will be greatly degraded, I sure hope they step up and weigh in on this before it's too late.
It had to be all about energy / the Evangelical Right interests.
Obviously the things that are happening in Palin's personal life - smash the conservative halo and what's left is energy.
Almost half her speech sounded to me like it was about energy /oil and gas - added to by the call for nuclear [not-in-my-backyard] plants across the country - and then the lip service to alternatives.
That's why she's there.
These are building blocks for another Big Oil administration/ warmongering one - for oil.
Like Alaska - little insignificant Georgia [up there by Russia] has a pipeline running through it as well.
The problem is efforts to acquire energy are becoming more and more extreme - we all want to see growth in China and India - and Russia emerge from its communist rule - to do this we all need energy - and what we are now fighting over is a dwindling pool.
Listening to the warmongering rhetoric coming out of the RNC convention - what they are saying is let's continue this fight for scarce energy resources.
Money which would be better spent on Barrack Obama's plan - which says - let's change this for real!
Let’s move away from or change the way we use these types of energy!
The Iraq war Alone costs more than the cost to completely switch to wind and solar.
See my profile.
This is complete BS. The Iraq war has not even cost $1 Trillion thus far. As of Sept 2006, the first 3 years of tha Iraq War had only cost $400B. That's less than the annual debt service on the national debt. Even if the cost doubles by Sept 2009, that will still be less than $1T. shttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11880954/
This is an estimate of what oit would cost to convert the entire current coal-gas-oil US power generation capacity to wind-solar-geothermal. Not one of these schemes would cost less than 1.2 Trillion just for the generators, and that is the nuclear option, which YOU bitterly oppose. Wind, which yopu are constantly promoting here comes in at $6 Trillion. None of these prices include the tranmsmission grid to get this energy to market. Some folks have noticed renewable sources are not located at the same places as current generation capacity. The real cost of any of these options is upwards of 2.5 Trillion and maybe closer to $10 Trillion.
http://www.reason.com/news/show/127793.html
Sorry Reason's article is BS. They compare specifica project prices in wind and solar, with hypothetical prices from westinghouse trying to sell Nukes!
The average cost of wind power KWH installed last year is cheaper for wind than actual nuclear.
Nukes are a dead end: they can't get insurance with the government. Nukes just create another scarce resource uranium, and with us threatening to nuke Iran of the legal reprocessing you want to install MORE NUKES?!@?!#?@#@
Linear thinking is a handy way to dismiss new ideas. Look up the "S" curve. We are just moving into the steep part for wind, and solar.
The prices of mass produced cells with be a fraction of today's hand made cells. No economist would debate that.
My profile has links and calculations.
An outright lie. And one you have been challenged on before.
The Iraq War has not cost $1Trillion. To date, it has cost $500 Billion. "The bill for Iraq over the past five years is now approaching a cumulative $500 billion, or about $100 billion per year on average" source: http://money.cnn.com/2008/01/10/news/economy/costofwar.fortune/index.htm
The cost to switch current fossil fuel to wind power alone for would exceed $6 Trillion over the next ten years. source: http://www.reason.com/news/show/127793.html
Do you lie to people intentionally or are you just guillible?
What I hear her saying is "forget about people, forget about the planet -- it's energy that only matters in this world."
A seminal wedge between the haves and the have-nots.
I heard also consume consume...keep going america! What we want we get. Ra, Ra America! However, we use 25% of oil produced But are only 3% of global population; that is el sicko!
All this slight of hand, outright lies to win the power positions...oh I can't repeat myself... it's sicko. Learn to conserve people; reduce, reuse, recycle.
The fastest way is to build coal-to-liquids plants, (mostly in swing states, of course) which can be gradually cleaned up by switching to renewable carbon sources when the green technologies mature. Rather than rely on vague plans or futuristic research programs, this has to be an open and unapologetic campaign to sink global oil prices for US self-interest within a few years.
This will cost a fortune, which is just fine. The public will go along with it if they see light, jobs and cheap all-domestic gas at the end of the tunnel.
:-)
As for moral and ethical backbone, you'll find some when you stoppretending to be a Democrat.
Global Climate Change? Try walking to the North Pole. Oh, that's right, it's under water for the first time in recorded history.
Your carbon footprint can be reduced greatly if you stop spewing the methane from what are, laughably, called your posts.
Glad I could help.
Yep, stop the trolling and things will go uphill from there.
Translation: We'll do more of the same and give lip service to clean energy while lining the pockets of oil and coal and trickle enough money toward alternative energy so we can't be accused of doing nothing. e.g.- Buch Inc. policy of effectively doing nothing.
makes my head hurt. And it feels like part of the right wing plan.
It's called the 'reasonable' position that sounds good enough for low information voters.
This is the position of the energy industry;
1. Continue the status quo, with rear guard actions to slow any changes as long as possible.
2. Hopefully get your foot in the door so you can profit when energy change becomes inevitable.
3. The goal is to continue to corner the energy market FOREVER.
link to table with obama's hundreds of legislative efforts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_bills_sponsored_
by_Barack_Obama_in_the_United_States_Senate
link to table with obama's primary legislative achievements, including the bipartisan obama-lugar bill (ethics, reform) obama has other ethics achievements.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barack_Obama
i have not included the many years in the state legislature, only the use senate where he was for a scant three years. productive?
"America, you are an addict and Mommy will make sure that you will get your fix!"