When John McCain announced that Sarah Palin would be the Republicans’ vice presidential candidate last Friday, many in Washington scrambled to try to fill in the blanks about this relatively unknown candidate.  But those of us who follow environmental and energy issues knew immediately that Palin’s nomination was cause for concern.

Palin supports the same, Big Oil-directed energy policies that the Bush administration has embraced for the last eight years.  She denies the scientific reality that global warming is caused by humans.  And her assertion that her preferred mechanism for constructing a gas pipeline is “God’s will” is troubling.

Palin’s record is not extensive—just two years ago she was the mayor of a city of less than 10,000 people—but when it comes to issues of energy and the environment, her approach is abundantly clear.  Rejecting science and pretending that the jury’s still out as to whether humans are causing global warming is just the tip of the iceberg.  Palin also favors opening up the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, even though there’s not enough oil there to make a dent in prices.  This spring, she opposed the listing of polar bears as an officially ‘threatened’ species, even though melting ice caps have put the survival of this noble species in doubt.  Palin also supports the brutal aerial hunting of wolves and bears.  And she has been a friend of Big Oil, opposing a windfall profits tax on the oil industry that could fund affordable clean energy for more Americans.  It’s also fair to note that her husband works for BP.

Palin tries to portray herself as a reformer who stood up to Big Oil and opposes earmarks, but the record is clear.  Palin supports the same Big Oil agenda that’s supported by George W. Bush and John McCain, and her almost single-minded focus on more drilling distracts from the true challenge, which is to end our nation’s dependence on fossil fuels altogether.

Palin’s efforts to appear as though she’d bring change to Washington aren’t helped by her decision to play the same old political games.  For example, in her convention speech last night, she repeatedly misled the audience.  This whopper about drilling is just one example:

“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,” Palin said last night.  “But the fact that drilling won’t solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.”

Where to start?  The truth is, drilling is already increasing in the U.S. and off our coasts, and it’s not doing any good.  This isn’t a question of whether drilling will solve “every” problem.  The truth is, further expanding domestic drilling won’t solve any of our problems.  And Palin’s implication that her political opponents would prefer to “do nothing at all” is mendacious and hypocritical.  In reality, Barack Obama and Joe Biden have proposed massive investments in clean, affordable energy alternatives, as well as efficiency, and it is John McCain who has often stood in the way of such proposals—most recently by skipping out on last December’s energy bill vote in which he could have ended giveaways to Big Oil and used that money to promote wind and solar power.

When it comes to energy issues and environmental protection, Palin’s addition to the ticket does nothing to fundamentally change the dynamics of this race.  Instead, it underscores the vast differences between the candidates on environmental issues.  The McCain-Palin ticket is a recipe for energy disaster.   Barack Obama and Joe Biden offer a far superior agenda.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 4th, 2008 at 2:15 pm and is filed under Politics, Energy/Environment, Campaign, Presidential Campaign .