Sarah Palin blames oil leak on environmentalists
In Sarah Palin's world, oil companies were forced by big mean environmentalists to drill in deep waters after being locked out of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Fri, Jun 04 2010 at 2:35 PM EST
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Photo: Richmond Times-Dispatch 
It's not hard to understand the phenomenon of Sarah Palin once you fully accept that at least 25 percent of Americans are stupid. A little less than a quarter of Americans think the Sun revolves around the Earth. Only 53 percent know how long it takes for the Earth to revolve around the Sun. A shocking 41 percent of Americans think humans and dinosaurs lived together at the same time (you can blame the Flintstones for that one).So in that context, it's not surprising that Sarah Palin's latest note on Facebook, a bizarro-world screed blaming environmentalists opposed to ANWR drilling for pushing drilling offshore, has gathered 8,042 likes and 1,438 comments.
Palin opens with:
This is a message to extreme “environmentalists” who hypocritically protest domestic energy production offshore and onshore. There is nothing “clean and green” about your efforts. Look, here’s the deal: when you lock up our land, you outsource jobs and opportunity away from America and into foreign countries that are making us beholden to them. Some of these countries don’t like America. Some of these countries don’t care for planet earth like we do – as evidenced by our stricter environmental standards.With your nonsensical efforts to lock up safer drilling areas, all you’re doing is outsourcing energy development, which makes us more controlled by foreign countries, less safe, and less prosperous on a dirtier planet. Your hypocrisy is showing. You’re not preventing environmental hazards; you’re outsourcing them and making drilling more dangerous.Extreme deep water drilling is not the preferred choice to meet our country’s energy needs, but your protests and lawsuits and lies about onshore and shallow water drilling have locked up safer areas. It’s catching up with you. The tragic, unprecedented deep water Gulf oil spill proves it.
This is dumb on so many levels.
The oil companies aren't drilling in deep waters because they've been locked out of drilling ANWR, they're drilling there because there is oil there and because they make a lot of money selling oil. Oil companies exist to suck oil out of the ground and turn it into cash selling it to us. Opening up ANWR to oil companies would just mean they'd be able to make more money for longer. Opening up ANWR also wouldn't have any effect on deep water offshore drilling.
Most of the world's easy oil has already been tapped, and the small blip of oil sitting under ANWR isn't going to slow down the efforts of big oil to ensure they have supply — without regulation, you can bet that oil companies will drill anywhere their engineers tell them there's oil to be found. Without regulation (and seriously harsh penalties, company-breaking even), oil companies will continue to cut corners and drill without common sense safety measures like pre-drilled relief wells (mandated in Canada). If it's cheaper to pay for a cleanup every X years than to pay for safer operating over those same years, then oil companies are going to keep cutting corners. It's the brutal accounting of the oil business.
Predictably, Sarah Palin is using this tragic event to rail against foreigners. In her world, the big bad British "Keystone Kop"-ped their way into this mess, something that would never have happened had it been run by good, hard-workin' Americans.
Except that I'd guess that most of the people directly involved with the accident were American. BP is a multinational corporation with extensive U.S. offices run by Americans. Sure, the company is headquartered in the U.K. and is run by a Brit, but those were American hands pulling the levers on that drilling rig that day.
And let's not forget that Sarah Palin's husband, Todd, was an employee of BP for 18 years.
Once again: Sarah Palin's husband worked for British Petroleum for nearly two decades.
Her Wednesday Facebook Note was a follow-up to a Tweet she made on Monday:
Extreme Greenies: see now why we push"drill,baby,drill"of known reserves&promising finds in safe onshore places like ANWR? Now do you get it?
Sarah Palin either doesn't know anything about how the oil markets work, or more likely (considering she WAS the governor of Alaska and is married to a former BP employee) is dissembling to rile up her base and to polish her Big Oil bona fides. I mean, can she really be THAT ignorant as to how global oil markets really work!?
Here are some of the geniuses chiming in on Palin's Facebook note in support of it. Remember, 25 percent of the country thinks the Sun revolves around us.
Stephan Kirsch
The last thing oil companies want is an oil glut or a gasoline glut, because that drives down prices. So, Mr. Hooker, if we opened up ANWR, where it would be cheaper and safer to drill, I think most oil companies would move away from off-shore drilling.Dale Clark
old stupid harry reed made a comment several months ago, saying ( Oil makes us sick and coal makes us sick ) apparently he don't understand that without Oil and coal most of us would be DEAD within two years. What an Idiot! right along with most extreme inviromentalist.Leslie Vande Berg Rosson
If we had drilled in shallower waters, say a mile out vs 5 miles out, we could have easily gotten divers down there to fix this current catastropheMark Adams
Excellent post, Gov.Palin!Joel Luther
Obama and the democrats need to close they mouth, BECAUSE THEY BREATH STINKS!!.............. Let me make my record clear, i am not a racist, im not racist againsed blacks,, i grew up with a who bunch of black friends in San Bernardino California.. And i also grew up with indian friends. But the only change that the people really got, was the first ... See Moreblack man in office, the first black president. And when he says "change", he means, you will only have some loose change in your pocket after he is done taxing us to death, and stealing our money!!.. Obama, i knew that was the change you meant, and that's why i didn't vote for you!! I voted for Sarah Palin, and i will vote for Sarah is she runs for President.. I love Sarah because she comes from ourside of the corrupt policical circle, and she ha's different solutions and ideas to offer us, than do any other politicians have offered us.. Obama is not a commander and chief.. OBAMA IS A LIAR AND THIEF!!......Lee Nichols
Not only are they stalling prgress, they are impairing the clean up in the Gulf. There I said it. Any Environmental Nazis care to take me on????????????????
The ignorance... it burns....
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Comments
Spurwing Plover
02/17/2011 15:05 PM
Maybe those eco-wackos should go to SOUTH AMERICA and start living like TARZAN swinning from tree to tree screaming some weird calls and communing with nature like they do on their dumb earthday get togethers
wildbird
07/04/2010 02:41 AM
Sara Palin is right if it were not for these eco-wacko freaks opposing oil drill in the ANWR and using the FRAGLE EARTH,SENSITIVE ECO-SYSTEM poppycock we would have to drill in the gulf and despite all their holier then thaou attatudes they use oil even on their bikes they still have to keep the chain oiled
TESSnTX
06/16/2010 14:11 PM
We do not *NEED* oil. Check this out:
http://www.denmark.dk/en/menu/Climate-Energy/Fact-Sheets/Where-Does-Your...
IF YOU DARE!
Tonopah2
06/17/2010 13:39 PM
I read it. Problem is you need oil to make the wind turbines, to ship them you need oil, to do anything you need oil. Now if you want to try a simple experiment try living one day without any oil base product. I’ll even help get you started. Your computer is made with oil, so there’s no need to reply because if you’ll just look around everything within sight is oil base or use oil to manufacture.
grease
Today 17:14 PM
i would like to grease palin and hand her my tool
bush
Today 16:39 PM
sara can fix the spill just open her mouth and she can swallow all the oil
ron
Today 14:11 PM
The obvious flaw in Palins thinking ,is this. We need to switch over to SUSTAINABLE energy sources, not buy oil elsewhere. All the products, and components would be made,assembled, operated and maintained in America, by Americans. This in itself, is a major boost for the economy. Also, re-educating thousands of Americans in high-paying permanent employment . Yes, cars can be powered by windmills. They power the generator that the electric car can use. Solar, wind and hydro-electric combined.... More
ron
Today 14:10 PM
The obvious flaw in Palins thinking ,is this. We need to switch over to SUSTAINABLE energy sources, not buy oil elsewhere. All the products, and components would be made,assembled, operated and maintained in America, by Americans. This in itself, is a major boost for the economy. Also, re-educating thousands of Americans in high-paying permanent employment . Yes, cars can be powered by windmills. They power the generator that the electric car can use. Solar, wind and hydro-electric combined.... More
ApostateBodhisattva
06/05/2010 21:10 PM
Palin isn't entirely wrong. I blogged a similar opinion a few weeks ago. Yes the oil companies would eventually drill in the deeper water reserves, because eventually they will drill everywhere there is oil, but they would drill in shallower waters if NIMBYs in FL, CA and the east coast would allow it. But the rest of the country wants to burn the petroleum as long as the mess is made in someone else's back yard.
Tonopah2
06/05/2010 15:45 PM
with Greg. The people who ***** the most about the using of natural resources are the ones driving coal burning electric cars, drinking water from there plastic bottles while smoking wacky weed. If you allowed more drilling for oil/gas on land, when a disaster like this happen it can be fixed quickly. Unlike trying to plug a hole 5000 feet down. As for Sarah Palin, she has pushed more for an all the above solution than most of the envorwhackos could even think of. Check out Alaska solution for.... More
Elizabeth
06/05/2010 10:02 AM
It doesn't matter at this point whose fault it is -- there will be time to assign blame later. Right now, the important thing is getting it taken care of. I'm sick of seeing both liberals and conservatives using this as a means to prop up their political agendas and foster even more divisiveness in the U.S. Meanwhile, birds and animals are dying, shorelines and wetlands are being inundated with oil, the gusher keeps on flowing and tons of people (both fishermen and oil riggers) are.... More
john eisel
06/04/2010 20:53 PM
Sarah Palin has to be, without a doubt, the dumbest *** on planet earth. so , if we open up anwar, they can stop deep water drilling. yeah , right. what a moron.
greg
06/04/2010 19:51 PM
Maybe all the envorwhackos should give up their cars, central heat, air conditioning, electricity, and revert back to about 1850 technology wise. The truth is, we need oil, we will need oil for generations to come. Preventing drilling onshore and in shallow waters off shore and forcing drilling deeper and deeper will result in the kinds of accidents we have seen.
I haven't seen too many cars powered by windmills, btw.
