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 What does Sen. John McCain’s choice of Alaska governor Sarah Palin bring to the Republican ticket? A penchant even bigger than John McCain’s for more oil and gas exploration.
Gov. Palin, one of the GOP’s rising stars, has long been a vocal
proponent of opening the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge for more
drilling.
That horrifies many environmentalists. And, to a certain extent,
Sen. McCain, who reversed his long-held opposition to offshore drilling
this summer but still hesitates at opening up ANWR, though he’s
recently said he would consider it. Gov. Palin says Alaskans are
conservation-minded and would love to open up the area—and she’s ready
to sell John McCain on the idea. From a recent interview with Weekly Standard:
She says McCain’s willingness to take another look at ANWR is “very encouraging.”
“It bodes well for him as a pragmatic and wise and experienced
statesman,” says Palin. “What he’s doing here is he’s calling an
audible when conditions on the field are changing. And that’s what you
do if you want to win the game here. One of the pieces of a solution is
allowing exploration on that little 2,000 acre plot of land out of the
20 million acres up there in the coastal plain.”
The 2,000 acres that Palin refers to is the area that a drilling site
would require–”smaller than the size of LAX,” as she puts it. “With new
technology and directional drilling and other measures that can be
taken today to minimize even that footprint. We know that this can be
done safely and this can be managed well.”
She added: “And I know up here in Alaska, most every Alaskan believes
that ANWR should be drilled, and no one cares more about Alaska’s
environment–our lands, our wildlife, our fresh air, our clean
water–than Alaskans themselves. And we know that this can be allowed
safely, cleanly, ethically–this type of exploration and development of
an American supply of energy.”
[…]
Palin, who caused a stir earlier this month by praising Barack Obama’s
proposal to tap Alaska’s natural gas potential, believes McCain could
chip away at that opposition by educating voters. “It’s been grossly
misunderstood on many fronts. When you see the pictures, the visuals
used in the opponents’ message–and usually this is extreme
environmentalists–their message as to why ANWR shouldn’t be touched,
you see pictures of mountains and rivers and beautiful green valleys.
That’s not ANWR. ANWR is a flat, barren plain that is very, very rich
in resources.”
Beyond all the other considerations—will Sarah Palin be the lure for
disaffected Clinton supporters?—John McCain’s choice for vice-president
seems to indicate that supply-side solutions to the energy crunch are
going to play an even bigger role in the GOP’s fall campaign.
Below, a video interview with Gov. Palin on the merits of opening up ANWR:
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