She's at it Again

Friday saw another post by our beloved former governor of Alaska on her Facebook page in response to the Horizon Oil Spill. I thought about not linking it in order to not give her the traffic, but as I'm going to quote some of the post here I want it to be available to readers in full so as not to take the Governor out of context. Her note is here. As you might expect the core of her response is still "Drill, Baby, Drill", now wrapped in a shell of concern for the environment.

As an Alaskan, I can speak from the heart about the tragedy of an oil spill. For as long as I live, I will never forget the day the Exxon-Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef and millions of gallons of North Slope crude poured into the waters of our beautiful Prince William Sound.

To be honest, I'm tired of this idea that only Alaskans understand the oil and gas industry for what it really is. We all buy their products, refineries are everywhere, and there are (as has been horribly demonstrated) other places where extraction is happening inside the US other than the North Slope and Prudhoe Bay.

Alaskans understand the tragedy of an oil spill, and we’ve taken steps to do all we can to prevent another Exxon tragedy, but we are still pro-development. We still believe in responsible development, which includes drilling to extract energy sources, because we know that there is an inherent link between energy and security, energy and prosperity, and energy and freedom.

I think it's safe to say that Americans understand the tragedy of an oil spill. But leaving that aside, if Alaska has done all it can, how come twenty years later the majority of tankers operating out of the Port of Valdez in Prince William Sound are still single hulled tankers? Could it be that replacing those tankers might cost Exxon and BP money that they don't want to spend and so they haven't been pushed to make necessary changes?

She does get one thing right. And I want to give credit where it's due. There is a link between energy and security, energy and prosperity, and energy and freedom. So why is it then, as a major news contributor and a political figure of some serious heft, Governor Palin hasn't used any of her significant power to push for more money for R&D on renewable energy generation, or more money toward the technologies that we already have?  After all, we just approved the new wind farm off of Cape Cod. I agree that it was a tough decision but it comes down to whether you're willing to make the sacrifices to break America's dependency on foreign oil or not. Clearly the Governor and her friends in the Tea Party and the GOP aren't willing to make that sacrifice. For them, truly, national security always comes down to who to kill, what war to start, or what to blow up in that country several thousand miles from here. Even though their rhetoric says that they get it, they never seem to make the easy choices that will advance our national security and safeguard the lives of all Americans including those in the military.

The Governor also pushes the idea in her post that she (and by extension the GOP) has been tough on Big Oil.

This was the position I took as an oil and gas regulator and as Governor of Alaska when my administration ramped up oversight of the oil industry and created a petroleum-systems-integrity office to monitor our oil and gas infrastructure for potential environmental risks. I took a lot of heat for the stand I took “against the oil industry” (which is how political adversaries labeled my actions). But we took tough action because there was proof of some improper maintenance of oil infrastructure which I believed was unacceptable. We instituted new oversight and held British Petroleum (BP) financially accountable for poor maintenance practices.

If that is true, why is it that profits for Petroleum companies went through the roof during the Bush Administration? Well, besides the fact that two unnecessary wars opened up a big new market for them. Granted, the Obama Administration doesn't get off the hook. After all they just a few weeks ago lifted a ban on deep water drilling in the Gulf of Mexico that they are only now, in the light of a national disaster, walking back. The Obama Administration is, just like the Bush Administration, far to loyal to big business interests. We've seen this time and again from the deep water drilling, to the weak stance on Health Care Reform when Big Pharma got involved and now we're seeing it in Wall Street Reform. Everyone is to blame here. Every administration since the early 1900s, the Democrats, the GOP, the Tea Party, and yes, you and me. We take for granted that our choices at the pump and at the ballot box have no effect on these big companies and we're wrong. It's time, well past time, to make a conscious effort to drive less, take public transit, walk, and bike more, vote for representatives who legitimately want to control big business, and get America off our Oil Addiction, foreign or otherwise.