Palin on Energy

Remember how John McCain said that Sarah Palin knows more about energy than ANYBODY in the United States (a claim he has not withdrawn)? His primary justification for saying so, as well as Palin's, is that Alaska produces 20% of the nation's energy. She even said it on National TV in her only interview since being nominated for VP:

"Let me speak specifically about a credential that I do bring to this table, Charlie, and that's with the energy independence that I've been working on for these years as the governor of this state that produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I worked on as chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, overseeing the oil and gas development in our state to produce more for the United States."

This is bullshit. Just like "I said thanks, but no thanks on the bridge to nowhere." These people just keep lying. How do we know? Because science (and factcheck.org), as usual, comes to the rescue:

"It's simply untrue that Alaska produces anything close to 20 percent of the U.S. "energy supply," a term that is generally defined as energy consumed. That category includes power produced in the U.S. by nuclear, coal, hydroelectric dams and other means - as well as all the oil imported into the country.

Palin would have been correct to say that Alaska produces just over 14 percent of all the oil produced in the U.S., leaving out imports and leaving out other forms of power. According to the federal government's Energy Information Administration, Alaskan wells produced 263.6 million barrels of oil in 2007, or 14.3 percent of the total U.S. production of 1.8 billion barrels.

But Alaskan production accounts for only 4.8 percent of all the crude oil and petroleum products supplied to the U.S. in 2007, counting both domestic production and imports from other nations. According to EIA, the total supply was just over 5.5 billion barrels in 2007.

Furthermore, Palin said "energy," not "oil," so she was actually much further off the mark. According to EIA, Alaska actually produced 2,417.1 trillion BTUs [British Thermal Units] of energy in 2005, the last year for which full state numbers are available. That's equal to just 3.5 percent of the country's domestic energy production.

And according to EIA analyst Paul Hess, that would calculate to only "2.4 percent of the 100,368.6 trillion BTUs the U.S. consumes."

I'm not sure how much more plain I can make it. These. People. Lie. They lie a lot. Although, I'm sure the defense will be "She wasn't lying! She really knows a lot about energy, she just sucks at math...and math is for socialists!"

And they're not even good at it. They do it when it's so easy to catch them. Like when McCain said "The fundamentals of our economy are strong" (the Bush fundamentals that he has voted for and said he will vote to make permanent) less than a day before the stock market crashed.

Ok, here is how US oil production works. Do you know which nation ranked third in the world in oil production last year? I'll give you a hint: it rhymes with the United States.

(::EDIT:: Did you know that our oil exports in the last five years have been the highest ever for the United States? Thanks to dad for this one. ::/EDIT::)

So why the soaring gas prices and what not? It's because when "we" drill for oil here "we" don't get it. The oil companies get it. They pay "us" for the leases on the land they drill on. Now, if they can sell the oil to European countries or Canada for $5 a barrel (hypothetically, I have no idea what the actual numbers on this are) and to our government for only $4 a barrel, who do you think is gonna get it? Drilling off shore will only get the oil companies more oil, not "us."

Try explaining that to the legions who can't hear us shouting stuff like the contents of this note under the drone of "Drill here, drill now!" The only thing that grinds my gears more than liars like Palin and McCain are gullible people, and how many of them there are.

So, to Sarah Palin, from me with love...

Lying bitch.