Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin renewed her energy reform credentials in her second major policy speech, delivered at a solar energy company in Toledo, Ohio.
“During my experiences in Alaska, I saw what American ingenuity can achieve if given a chance,” Palin said. “As governor of a huge energy-producing state and chairman of our state oil and gas conservation commission and chairman of the national Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, I have also seen how political pressure, special interests and corporate abuses can work against the clear public interest in increasing our national energy supplies.”
She even hit out at Republican Sen. Ted Stevens of Alaska, who was recently found guilty by a federal jury of seven counts of making false statements about gifts he received. “As you may have seen in the news this week, Alaska’s senior senator is not the first man to discover the dangers of getting too close to financial interests with their own agendas.”
Palin also used the address to criticize her Democratic opponent. She called Joe Biden’s position on energy issues “nonsense.”
“He says clean coal is a good idea for China, but sorry Ohio, Joe Biden says it’s not for you,” she said. “This is just nonsense, and there is so much more in Senator Biden’s record. He is against drilling off our coast for environmental reasons. But he says offshore drilling holds real promise for the island nation of Cyprus – as if Cypriots’ environmental protections are more stringent than ours. And as far as he and Senator Obama are concerned, nuclear power is fine too – but only for France and other European countries. Our adversaries seem to have all kinds of solutions to other nations’ energy needs – if only they would focus more on America’s needs.”
Palin said Democrats’ opposition to energy exploration on environmental grounds was misguided, citing pure technological advances such as horizontal drilling, carbon capture and storage, and improved recovery.
