Palin Hopes Alaska Will Produce 50% Renewable Energy by 2025
On Friday, Gov. Palin announced that she was setting the goal of having Alaska produce 50% of its electricity from renewable sources by 2025. Outlining this proposal was a 245 page document called “Alaska Energy: A first step toward energy independence.”
The only problem is that, as the Juneau Empire noted, “Palin and energy advisor Steven Haagenson also revealed that the plan isn’t actually a plan for action. Instead, it is a list of resources on which local communities may use to develop their own solutions. Haagenson acknowledged that was a different approach, but said they actually “avoided” developing a plan, and instead tried to develop something that would work.”
It is unclear how providing fewer details and substance is more likely to work, but that would seem consistent with her general political approach. The Empire concludes, “While the plan doesn’t provide a road map for getting to its stated goal of half the state’s power coming from renewable sources, it identifies numerous areas in which the state could develop alternative energy.”
Palin: Alaska Will Sue to Prevent Protection of Beluga Whales
On the same day that EPA nominee Lisa Jackson declared that politics should not trump science in government, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced that her state would be filing a lawsuit to prevent beluga whales in the Cook Inlet from being protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Due to the decline in the fragile population of fewer than 400 remaining beluga whales in the Inlet, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) listed these whales as endangered last year. NOAA warned that, “The Cook Inlet beluga population declined nearly 50 percent between 1994 and 1998,” and that “the Cook Inlet beluga population [was] at 375 for both 2007 and 2008. Estimates have varied from a high of 653 belugas in 1994 to a low of 278 belugas in 2005.” READ MORE
Drill, baby, drill, baby one more time
In looking for a photo for our previous post about using access to gasoline as leverage against Iran, we came across this gem. While we promised to try and stop talking about her, given her seemingly perpetual presence on the TV and internet news sites, and our personal inability to get over the dangers of her populist anti-intellectualism, we had to post this illustration.
“The chant is ‘drill, baby, drill.’” -Sarah Palin, VP debate.
The Palin-Africa story takes a fantastic twist
The Palin-Africa reports by “news” organizations and picked up by bloggers, alike, (ourselves included), took a turn for the bizarre today. The NYTimes reports that at least part of the Palin story is a complete hoax.
The NYT notes that MSNBC reported on Monday that the initial leak regarding Palin not knowing that Africa is a continent came from “Martin Eisenstadt, a McCain policy adviser, who has come forward… to identify himself as the source of the leaks.” However, as the NYT reports, there is no McCain advisor named Martin Eisenstadt. In fact, Martin Eisenstadt isn’t even a real person– he was a creation of two film makers who apparently made him up to pitch a TV show. READ MORE
Palin couldn’t name the countries in North America and didn’t realize that Africa is a continent?
Reports have come out that McCain’s aids are claiming Palin couldn’t name the countries in North America and didn’t realize that Africa is a continent. As unbelievable as this would seem, given her other past statements, we should realize anything is possible. READ MORE
Palin wrongly accuses newspaper of hiding Obama interview transcript regarding coal
A mini-controversy has broken out over remarks Gov. Palin made on Sunday at a campaign stop in Ohio. Palin accused Sen. Obama of claiming he wants to bankrupt the coal industry in an interview with the SF Chronicle in January. Palin also suggested that the newspaper had intentionally withheld the tape recording of this interview for political reasons.
“You gotta listen to the tape,” she said. “Why is this audio tape just now surfacing? This interview was given many months ago. You (the audience) should have known about this.” READ MORE
Palin’s ‘all of the above’ is really just ‘more of the same’
Sarah Palin gave an energy policy speech on Wednesday. While her audience at a solar technology start-up refrained from the zombie “drill, baby, drill” chant, that didn’t stop Palin from re-emphasizing that message. Unfortunately, even Palin’s “all of the above” policy is empty.
Without imposing a cap-and-trade or carbon tax on emissions, oil and coal will remain artificially cheap, leaving alternative energy start-ups on an uneven playing field to compete. This, of course, will result in more of the same old policy we’ve had for 30 years, which is over consumption of artificially cheap, dirty fuels. Palin said she disapproved of the Bush Administration and Congress’s energy policies, but her plan will also just lead to more of the same.
NYTimes endorses Obama, citing energy and climate issues
The NYTimes op-ed board naturally endorsed Barack Obama today (having endorsed 13 of the last Democratic presidential candidates). In the endorsement, the board notes “Mr. McCain could have seized the high ground on energy and the environment. Earlier in his career, he offered the first plausible bill to control America’s emissions of greenhouse gases. Now his positions are a caricature of that record: think Ms. Palin leading chants of ‘drill, baby, drill.’ Mr. Obama has endorsed some offshore drilling, but as part of a comprehensive strategy including big investments in new, clean technologies.” READ MORE
Palin believes God will put her into office
Sarah Palin, in an interview yesterday with evangelist James Dobson, declared that she is confident that God will do “the right thing for America” on November 4. Dobson noted that both he and his wife were praying “for God’s intervention” in the election. READ MORE
Wednesday’s Environment
· Treehugger notes that the United Kingdom has overtaken Denmark in producing the most offshore wind energy. The UK’s total offshore wind capacity is now 590 MW, which is approximately enough electric generating capacity for 300,000 homes. However, “the UK still places near the bottom of the list in terms of total renewable energy use as compared to other European nations.”
· The global price of oil dropped again today, as weakening global demand trumped concerns that OPEC cuts would send prices higher. Additionally, a rally in the value of the dollar today cut the appeal of commodities across the board.
· Tom Friedman, echoing a concern many of us have, warned that the current dip in energy prices cannot allow us to become complacent with our energy policy. “This moment feels to me like a bad B-movie rerun of the 1980s. And I know how this movie ends – with our re-addiction to oil and OPEC, as well as corrosive uncertainty for our economy, trade balance, security and environment.”
· Grist looks at Andrew Sullivan’s “Odd Lies of Sarah Palin” and highlights four specific lies she has told relating to the environment, which include: endangered species, the oil pipeline, climate change, and Alaska’s energy contribution.
Some more details on Palin’s environmental policies
[See below the fold for an update to this post.]
As Colin Powell noted in his appearance on Meet the Press yesterday, the vice president’s sole job is to be ready to be president, and clearly this is not the case with Sarah Palin. We’ve looked at Palin’s horrendous views on the environment previously, but an article in the Telegraph today raised some more points that we have not yet discussed: READ MORE
Palin on polar bears, climate change, aerial hunting, drilling in ANWR
From the CBS/New Republic article: “It’s true that Alaska’s top leaders have placed industry wishes over environmental protection for years. But, instead of correcting this problem, she’s compounded it.”
Palin supports 2 wars and bailout but says paying higher taxes ‘unpatriotic’
Tom Friedman had a scathing critique of Sarah Palin in the NYTimes today.
Friedman takes the following statement by Palin in the debate with Biden as a starting point: “You said recently that higher taxes or asking for higher taxes or paying higher taxes is patriotic. In the middle class of America, which is where Todd [Palin] and I have been all of our lives, that’s not patriotic.”
From there, Friedman makes the following insights: READ MORE
VP Debate: Biden and Palin both support emission caps, Palin reiterates strong support for more drilling
The first and only vice presidential debate just concluded and similar to the presidential debate, there was fairly limited talk about energy and the environment. In fact, the word “environment” was only mentioned twice– once by Palin in describing offshore drilling as “safe” and “environmentally-friendly” and once by Biden, in noting that an energy policy should create jobs, in addition to energy independence and a “clean environment.”
However, there was some talk of energy policy, the following of which are the highlights:
Controlled roll-out of Palin continues with another CBS clip
CBS released another clip today of the (now infamous) Couric-Palin interviews. In today’s roll-out, Couric and Palin touch on the topic of climate change and the environment. Palin mostly answers in her trademark generalities, but does not repeat any of the controversial positions from her past. The topic of the environment begins around the 3:20 mark on the video and lasts for about a minute and a half.
[Hat-tip: Dot Earth]
