Palin understands energy business

Houston Chronicle:

In an election where energy has moved to the top of the agenda, Republican vice-presidential pick Sarah Palin arguably brings more credibility on the topic than anyone else on the two major tickets.

She's the governor of Alaska, where close to 85 percent of the budget comes from oil revenue. It's second only to Texas among the states in oil production.

She's the previous head of the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Commission and is married to a North Slope oil production engineer.

Since taking office in 2006 she has thrown out the previous administration's plans for a North Slope natural gas pipeline, which had been criticized as too generous to oil producers, and has bolstered state coffers through an overhaul of the state's oil and gas tax structure.

"Between Biden, Obama and McCain, Palin is the only one who can spell 'energy.' The rest of these guys are completely clueless," said David Pursell, an analyst with Houston-based Tudor Pickering Holt & Co., an energy investment and research firm.

Sen. John McCain, who will claim the Republican presidential nomination at the GOP convention next week, announced his running mate on Friday — a day after the end of the Democratic convention that nominated Sens. Barack Obama and Joe Biden as that party's ticket.

Bruce Bullock, director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University in Dallas, said Palin knows the energy industry, "warts and all," and understands the importance of energy policy.

"She has shown an independent streak and has been anything but a patsy in dealing with the oil industry in Alaska," Bullock said.

But while Palin has ruffled some feathers in the industry, critics say her energy inclinations lean in favor of Big Oil.

The Sierra Club noted her strong support for drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which McCain has opposed, and her opposition to windfall profit taxes on major oil companies.

"No one is closer to the oil industry than Governor Palin," said Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope.

Gene Karpinski, president of the League of Conservation voters, said a McCain-Palin administration would "simply continue the failed policies of the Bush-Cheney administration and their big oil friends, policies that could make us even more dependent on foreign oil."

But Mike Doogan, a Democrat in Alaska's House of Representatives, said he's not so sure about Palin's chumminess with the industry.

"They don't have big color pictures of Sarah Palin in the board rooms of BP, ConocoPhillips or Exxon," Doogan said. "If she's in the pocket of big oil, she's kept it a pretty good secret."

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If the Sierra Club and other anti energy hate groups don't like her then she must be pretty smart. It is just hart to have respect for groups who are determined to oppose energy in all forms. How can you respect anyone who opposes ANWR? Ooops, McCain is also an idiot on ANWR. He has only recently come to his sense on offshore production so he is still trainable.

Democrats on the other hand will do the minimum required by political considerations in hopes of continuing to drive up cost and force conservation on Americans. Palin gets it and hopefully votes will too. If they do not they will be paying much more for energy.