Posted on 03/27/2011 9:08:15 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Governor Palin must be the GOP nominee because of energy.
Energy will arguably be the top issue facing America in 2012. The rise in fuel prices also brings about a rise in commodity and food prices, as those products are trucked, shipped, and flown to their destinations. I work in transportation logistics, and I can tell you first hand that fuel prices are so high, drivers for most of the carriers my account is contracted to are refusing to haul freight unless they get additional money for fuel. There are over 6,000 products made from petroleum. Here is a partial list of them. That means the prices of those goods will also skyrocket.
It is suicidal for the U.S., or any country for that matter, to lock up its reserves and continue to transfer billions of dollars to foreign regimes who loathe America to import their resources. None of the other potential GOP candidates or even elected Republicans right now have touched on this. Only Palin has talked about the $10 billion the U.S. loaned to Brazil for Petrobras and the oil rigs that are shutting down in the Gulf of Mexico because of Obama's regulations. Palin understands that with sound energy comes liberty and away from meddling in Middle Eastern politics.
Palin has never supported anthropogenic global warming. The sub-cabinet she created as Governor was for naturally-occurring climate change, and even then the sub-cabinet was a watchdog-type agency to study the issue, not a regulatory one. As President, Palin will rein in the EPA and reform the Energy and Interior Depts as well, and give more authority to state DNR agencies. Palin does not support cap and trade, while the other GOP candidates have, including Pawlenty, Romney, and Christie, who all support a regional version of it.
Governor Palin does support renewable energy (Alaska is already at 25% of her goal for renewable energy), but only as a long-term goal and only to supplement conventional energies until their use becomes viable and cost-effective. Nationally, Palin does not support them right now and have rejected their premise of it outright in her speech in India last week. Solar, wind, ethanol, fuel from garbage, skittles crapped from unicorns....these are simply not viable and they do not work unless via massive government mandates and massive government subsidies. When Palin is talking about an "all of the above" approach to energy, she is CLEARLY talking about proven, existing fuels: Coal, nuclear, natural gas, petroleum, hydroelectric, and geothermal. Palin is also not afraid to explore new and groundbreaking energy sources, such as methane hydrates, coal to oil conversion, hydrogen energy (fuel cells), pebble-bed nuclear plants, and nuclear fusion. The other candidates would continue the same-old status-quo of complicating the tax code with credits and subsidies without addressing the core, underlying issue.
Governor Palin is the ONLY Republican candidate who is not afraid to call the environmental movement for what it really is: A hypocritical, leftist movement designed not to care about the environment, but to weaken the U.S. both militarily and economically and facilitate socialism. As President, Palin will tell the envirowackos to pound sand. The other candidates will compromise, grovel, and push for more funding of "green energy" the minute some moonbat calls them a polluter.
Palin also rejects the "green job" myth and rightfully called it social engineering, in her Q & A in India after her speech. Palin knows that green jobs are nothing more than crony capitalism at the expense of working and middle-class taxpayers. She will investigate the Obama stimulus funds that went to green jobs and prosecute the crooks.
Governor Palin is not "in the pockets" of Big Oil, so it will be extremely difficult for her opponents to paint her as such. She promoted tough oversight and accountability in Alaska. But at the same time, Palin recognizes that oil companies need elbow room to do what they need to do. Therefore, Palin will work with the oil companies, and reduce frivolous lawsuits, junk science environmentalism, limit the Endangered Species Act and Clean Air Act, and other ridiculous regulations and directives that are hamstringing energy production.
By working with the oil companies, Palin will cut coastal residents and states in on the royalties, which neutralizes the NIMBY Luddites. Being that Palin is the type of person who wants everyone to benefit rather than a select few, she would probably create a national energy fund where all taxpayers would receive an annual energy rebate of some sorts.
And finally, only Palin can sell energy to a public duped by decades of liberal lies in layman's terms. This message will especially resonate with low-income residents in the Midwest and Northeast. It's BS that there's a federal heating program to help the poor pay for their heating costs in the winter. Here in WI, the law states that residents' power cannot be shut off from November to April. By the time April rolls around, a lot of people are behind and end up getting their electric shut off. Again, this is typical, knee-jerk liberalism that doesn't address the real issue but creates yet another victim class to be exploited and dependent on Democrats. Palin will end this and promote energy production as a means to lower energy prices across the board for all.
Of course, there are other valid reasons why Palin must be the GOP nominee, but energy is by far the most important reason for her to be.
Do you mean our Permanent Fund Dividend checks? These come as dividends to stockholders. A percentage of oil royalties paid to the State are invested in a Permanent Fund, which is in turn invested in the national and international market. Once each year, the dividends on these investments are calculated and divided among the stockholders (thats us, we Alaskans). Sarah Palin was not the designer of, nor had she anything to do with this program. It was put into place before the pipeline was built, back in the Seventies.
You do know this is Public Policy Polling, right? And you cite them as if they are gospel? They are known to weight polls heavily Democrat. It's a waste of time, but if you look into the internals of the poll, I bet it's skewed.
Posting a PPP poll here as fact is the same as posting a Media Matters, Politico, Huffington Post, MoveOn.org, DailyBeast or CommunistPartyUSA web page.
This might help you get up to speed on what Palin did as Governor. She did in deed impose a “Windfall” tax. To cover increases in the price of oil. Read the whole article. explains it in great detail, especially in regards to the Permanent Fund;
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2014601450_alaska27.html
This is your source? Some AP story picked up by a NEWSPAPER? And you parrot their "windfall-profits tax" phrase like a Democrat drone would? If you are a conservative, why would you do that?
From businessdictionary.com:
windfall profits tax Definition:
Ad valorem tax or flat tax imposed on inordinate and sudden increase in the income or profit of a firm or industry.
Learn what it means before you use it.
This additional tax was SP's baby and was layered on top of the royalties and other existing fees. It was an aggressive progressive tax on net profits.
According to industry officials it brought Alaska's share of revenue (revenue - not profits) up to 75%.
Part of the revenue derived from this additional tax did go to Alaskans in the form of a check. But, and this is key, this was not an agreed upon quid pro quo driven royalty...it was a levied tax and as with any tax those entities paying had no say in the matter.
To take it a step further, it was a tax (confiscation) of corporate revenues for the purpose of re-distribution.
Other polls say similar things. It’s the public and the MSM that is the problem. Not me.
I could care less either way. Palin is just one candidate among many. It will all come out in the wash. If she gets the nomination, I will gladly support her.
The way things are looking for the moment are not all that good for her though. Can she overcome this? Will things turn towards her favor later? Judging from past history is hard to do during this new age of instant messaging and Face Book.
Time will tell and its pointless to squabble over the details. She has not even declared yet. Holding circular firing squads here is definately not going to gain support for her either.
Here is also some facts, I’ll say it again, FACTS on the Situation in Alaska. You decide;
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2014601450_alaska27.html
Sure but, you might not necessarily want to post it. ;~)
Praise the Lord.
You are posting false information. There was already Petroleum Production Tax.
Forget the Presidency. Let’s skip straight to Canonization.
OMG, when I saw that go by on my screen, I said to myself, "That must be a mistake. No one could possibly say such a vicious thing."
MUST? I don’t think so. We don’t have monarchs here. We have elections. We have primaries. If Palin is strong enough in those, she will survive those and be tested to see if she’s stronger than her cult of personality supporters.
You haven’t been paying attention to the Palin threads. There’s really not all that much hyperbole in what I said.
Considering the normal back-and-forth on these Palin-is-the-only-possible-... threads, that’s hardly vicious.
For the dim witted here is Gov. Palin’s FB note you mentioned
NYT, There You Go Again
by Sarah Palin
The New York Times just can’t seem to get much of anything right lately. No wonder they’re facing economic and reputation woes. Their article today falsely reporting on my record as governor is full of spin, and I shall call them out on it.
Regardless of the recent political posturing, ACES (Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share) is a success for all stakeholders who want more domestic energy supplies for our great country. The Alaskan people (who collectively own the natural resources, via our state constitution), the resource producers who bid on the right to develop our oil and gas, and consumers all benefit under ACES. It incentivizes production and development. It works.
Amazingly, to the uninformed (or to those who really don’t want to incentivize oil exploration in America) ACES is spun to sound like an oil windfall profits tax and its progressivity is made to sound excessive. In reality, it was born of a need to have a tax structure that did three things:
1. It could not be created under a cloud of political corruption and self-dealing like the former Alaska administration and legislature’s PPT oil valuation structure. That’s a critical fact that is now frequently overlooked years later. Remember the legislators and oil industry players who went to jail because of bribes leading to votes in favor of the former administration’s PPT, which was unfairly tilted in favor of the resource producers against the resource owners (i.e., the people of Alaska)? Have we conveniently forgotten the fact that a corrupt process brought forth PPT, and I and others set out to change it by cleaning up the corruption?
2. It had to align the interests of Alaskans and the oil producers through exploration and production credits in partnership so that they benefit proportionally from commercialization of Alaska’s sovereign resources. This is very different from a government overtaxing personal or corporate income in which the government has no ownership stake in whatever it is that is being taxed.
3. It had to use a progressivity system that protects the producers from commercial strain when oil prices are low; otherwise the producers would seek development opportunities elsewhere. ACES does incentivize industry, but beware that Big Oil will always do what it does best for its shareholders: it will look out for its bottom line and always claim that it needs even more tax breaks. More power to them for trying, but resource owners deserve A CLEAR and EQUITABLE SHARE (ACES) of the value of their commonly-owned oil and gas.
ACES accomplished all three. The current criticism of this fair valuation makes no real sense. As an article at Big Government notes:
“The number of oil companies filing with the Alaska Department of Revenue has doubled indicating that competition has indeed increased. Alaska has the second most business friendly tax set-up — up two spots since the passage of ACES. Additionally, a report from Governor Parnell’s Department of Revenue indicated that 2009 yielded a record high in oil jobs. Even more recently, the newest employment numbers from Alaska show that oil job numbers were higher in January 2011 than in January 2010, indicating that jobs are growing at the seasonal level. Parnell argues that state revenues are in jeopardy, but it is estimated that his proposal would reduce revenues by $100-200 million.”
Most importantly, Alaska enjoys a $12 billion surplus thanks to ACES and the sound fiscal policies of my administration. I put billions of dollars aside in savings accounts (though I could have easily spent those billions and made a lot of friends with big-spending legislators on both sides of the aisle), and I continued to veto excess spending and Obama stimulus funds, and chopped earmarks by 86% – much to the chagrin of liberal legislators who were used as “sources” in the article. It’s kind of amusing to see state legislators claim credit for the surplus when they didn’t vote for ACES, and they cried to high heaven when I vetoed their wasteful spending on their special interest projects.
Of course, I could have made a lot more friends in Juneau if I had spent the surplus. But I chose to put billions in savings for a rainy day and return a portion to the people of Alaska. (It was their money after all.) I paid down hundreds of millions of dollars into our under-funded state pension plans, then set aside another billion for forward-funding education. I fought the union’s demands for more benefits, engaged in hiring freezes, and cut frivolous state expenditures – again, much to the chagrin of those who spend other people’s money recklessly. That’s sound fiscal policy. I’m proud of it, and Alaska is stronger today because of it.
Now, if others would like to claim credit for it, that is fine. As Ronald Reagan used to remind us: “There is no limit to what a man can do or where he can go if he doesn’t mind who gets the credit.” Amen!
But let’s not pretend that ACES wasn’t a key factor in the surplus, and let’s not pretend that it hasn’t been a success.
As for AGIA, our long-awaited natural gas pipeline project is moving along according to plan. A huge partnership was developed with Exxon and TransCanada when I put the project out for competitive bids, instead of using behind-closed-door schemes that would have screwed the public. Alaska will help America become energy independent, despite anti-energy politicos claiming AGIA won’t work. It’s already got the 50-year dream off the dime and in the works. See, competition works. So does a transparent process.
- Sarah Palin
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150114865173435
Ok, I’ll try to be less sensitive. ;-)
She has them terrified:
Try putting your emotions aside -- that sentiment of yours (above) is purely emotional.
SOME of us -- in all likelihood, most of us here -- who support and promote Palin, are doing so not because we think she's perfect (although perhaps YOU think there is such thing as a perfect candidate; I do not), nor because we see only her personality. However, IT GRATIFIES YOUR VANITY to think that the only reason we support her is because we've become "cultists" around her personality.
You think you're demeaning and insulting us, but the truth is that you demean yourself and do insult to own intelligence. If you're going to argue against Palin, those arguments will be valid and valuable if they are separated from emotion and grounded in truth.
But if you're going to use the weak, emotional "cultists!" charge to argue against the sentiments of those of us who think it's a priority to get as many Republicans and conservatives on board with her as quickly as possible, you will only reveal yourself as having shallow thought processes where emotion trumps thoughtfulness.
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