John McCain introduced her as "one of America's greatest energy experts," CNBC's Maria Bartiromo said "I think the biggest value she brings to the ticket is her expertise in energy," and Haley Barbour called her a "bonafide energy expert." Palin's petro-knowledge has become a given on the right.
What's the source of this deep knowledge? It doesn't come from Palin's multi-school odyssey from which she eventually earned a BS in communications. It doesn't come from her experience rattling off scores as a sportscaster. It doesn't come from overseeing ice rink construction in Wasilla. Nope, her energy expertise comes from being appointed to an oil and gas commission, a job she quit after less than a year.
Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission Chairwoman Sarah Palin said Friday she is resigning amid frustration that she is being forced to keep silent about ethics allegations against Republican Party of Alaska chairman Randy Ruedrich. ... Republican Gov. Frank Murkowski appointed both Ruedrich and Palin to the state commission last spring.
That's it. That's freakin' it.
There are people who have worked in this field for decades. People who have spent their lives studying the complex issues of energy production and utilization. People who experimented, investigated, sacrificed, and sweated to make discoveries about energy. There are actually people who didn't become "experts" by being handed a $122K / year appointment in an area they knew nothing about, spend a few months talking about their colleagues to the press, then quit when that press started to ask a few questions.
What Sarah Palin understands about energy would fit in a can of 3-in-1 oil and still leave room to fix a whole lot of squeaks.
And yet, Republicans hold up Palin as an "expert." Why? Well, partly it's just the natural tendency of the GOP to replace "has worked hard to learn something" with "repeats the party line adequately." In Republican terms, experience, knowledge, and hard work have no role in expertise.
And there's no place in the world where GOP disrespect for learning and admiration for empty rhetoric is more celebrated than the Washington Post Editorial Page, which today is dedicated to Sarah Palin's attack on the demon Cap and Trade.
Unfortunately, many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges. So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be:
I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage.
Those on the right who have been waiting for this are thrilled to think that Sarah is taking on this issue. Her expertise on energy will trounce the hundreds of ivory tower eggheads and so-called 'experts' who worked on Waxman-Markey!
There is no denying that as the world becomes more industrialized, we need to reform our energy policy and become less dependent on foreign energy sources. But the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive! Those who understand the issue know we can meet our energy needs and environmental challenges without destroying America's economy.
In other words, we need to change our ways -- and do more of exactly what we're already doing. If you're waiting for Palin to back up her statements with evidence, to offer any plan for the environmental problems caused by accelerating fossil fuel production, or to offer the slightest insight into this subject... you're not going to find it in this article. And why should you? Palin is only repeating watered-down talking points. She has no insight to give.
Palin spends the middle part of her daily ramble pushing the idea that Waxman-Markey will actually be most costly to the poor -- a talking point completely at odds with the CBO evaluation showing that working class consumers would come out ahead. But it's the Republican tradition to never let facts interfere with a good whine.
Palin then winds up for the big pitch.
We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.
Ever see that cartoon in which a chalkboard is covered by a hopeless snarl of math until the equation is interrupted by "and then a miracle occurs?" That's the Palin plan. Despite the fact that American oil production has declined every year since 1972 without cap and trade, despite the fact that American dependence on foreign oil has continually increased without cap and trade, despite the fact that oil prices have surged without cap and trade, Palin's solution is to keep on keepin' on. Don't stop until we've made America into the sooty pincushion God clearly intended, and all will be well. Or wells. Whatever. Palin's new direction is the same direction we've been following since 1861.
Palin never once comes close to admitting what the real experts have been telling us for decades -- that even if we do this, our overall production of oil will go down, not up. She also never comes close to saying that oil is a sideshow in this legislation. The carbon credits traded under the proposed legislation have their biggest impact not on oil, but on coal-powered electrical generation. In fact, given the increased requirements already set for automobile efficiency, Waxman-Markey will likely have little or no impact on the petroleum industry. Carbon trading will affect power plants, to which oil is inconsequential. The issues that Palin talks around are completely beside the point. But you can't blame her for spouting rote nonsense, because she clearly doesn't know any better.
Palin finishes with the silliest bit of rhetoric imaginable.
We have an important choice to make. Do we want to control our energy supply and its environmental impact? Or, do we want to outsource it to China, Russia and Saudi Arabia? Make no mistake: President Obama's plan will result in the latter.
The purpose of cap and trade is to restrict the emissions created when fossil fuels are burned. If the bill is passed, we will slow our consumption of fossil fuels from all sources, foreign and domestic. There's nothing, absolutely nothing, in Waxman-Markey that would (or could) cause more of our energy to be produced elsewhere. It's a contention so absolutely nonsensical as to defy any attempt at untangling the pseudo-logic.
What will cause us to import more oil? Doing nothing. And nothing is exactly what the Republicans have proposed.
Year after year, decade after decade, the Republican "do nothing" plan has placed more and more control of our energy production in the hands other nations. Now they say doing more of the same will reverse this trend. Well, it's not the first time we've heard that kind of 'logic' from the right.
Sarah Palin's attack on Waxman-Markey is as laughable as anything else she's said. Still, given enough time, she might learn a little about the area. Given the paucity of knowledge on the right, she might really become the GOP's most valuable player in the area of energy. But long before she gets to that point, America's Point Gaurd is sure to pass the ball, quit, and walk off to find her ego-stroking somewhere else. After all, that's her only real area of expertise.