Sarah Palin and Big Oil
Energy Wire talked to Gov. Sarah Palin in May about her views on Big Oil, offshore drilling and a long-awaited, expensive and controversial natural gas pipeline for which she has been pushing hard. With McCain's announcement Friday, suddenly her comments seem a lot more interesting.
Many environmental and Democratic activists attacked her yesterday for being too close to Big Oil. They dislike her support for drilling in environmentally sensitive areas, her skepticism about alternative energy sources, and her opposition to listing polar bears as an endangered species. "Sarah Palin reinforces John McCain's plan to continue the Bush-Cheney big oil energy policies," said Daniel J. Weiss, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress. "Palin may be new, but her big oil energy agenda is very old-fashioned."
However, back in May Palin portrayed herself as standing up to the biggest oil companies in discussions over a new $30 billion natural gas pipeline, talks that have drawn out over many years. (When I talked to her then, she already knew that McCain was considering her for the vice presidential spot on the Republican ticket.)
First, some important context: Palin represents one of the few real petro-states within the United States. Big Oil is big business in Alaska, and the state relies on oil and gas tax and royalty revenues for more than 80 percent of its budget. The state's coffers runneth over; every resident of Alaska gets a check from the state, a dividend for his or her share of the oil and gas extracted from the ground. Oh, and Palin's husband works as a field operator for BP, one of the main operators on the North Slope. Oil interests are largely Alaska's interests.
Palin is aligned with the oil industry on two key issues. She favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and many offshore areas. At the same time, she has bargained hard over the gas pipeline and seems to be pushing the long-stalled project forward. She has said that TransCanada can build the pipeline and has convinced the state legislature to back $500 million in grants and benefits for a company to get the permit and design process going.
Back in May, before Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz) changed his position to favor offshore drilling, I asked Palin if there were any place she would consider off-limits to drilling. She said she supports drilling in the Chukchi Sea, where oil companies such as Royal Dutch Shell earlier this year bid to drill, but she wavered on Bristol Bay, which President Bush opened up for drilling early last year. She said that "the fear would be that our very rich fish resources would be put in jeopardy."
Palin has tangled with several major oil companies over a construction strategy for a Trans-Alaska natural gas pipeline. Palin wants to construct a natural gas line big enough to be used not only by the handful of major companies that now dominate oil and gas extraction on Alaska's North Slope, but also by other smaller companies that might be interested in new exploration.
Earlier this year, Palin signed an agreement with a Canadian company, TransCanada, allowing it to start permitting and other work for construction of a pipeline despite opposition from some of the major oil companies - Exxon Mobil, Conoco Philips and BP -- working on Alaska's North Slope. Those companies have argued that the pipeline, which would cost an estimated $30 billion, was not economically feasible. Palin got the state of Alaska to give $500 million to start the process if TransCanada would put up the same amount to get started. The project will take more than a decade to complete.
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http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/energywire/2008/08/sarah_palin_and_big_oil.html
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