Sarah Palin om Obamas oljekris-respons

En som sällan dragit sig för att kritisera Barack Obama när hon ansett att detta behövts är Sarah Palin. Palin har på sin Facebook-sida också följande reflektion över Obamas respons på oljekatastrofen. Hon kritiserar Obamas beslut att inte träffa BP:s VD Tony Hayward (förrän nu) och förklarar att det är ett tecken på Obamas bristande exekutiva erfarenhet.

Obama motiverade sitt icke-möte med Hayward med orden:

“Because my experience is, when you talk to a guy like a BP CEO, he’s gonna say all the right things to me. I’m not interested in words. I’m interested in actions.”

Palin - som till skillnad från Obama - länge haft exekutiv erfarenhet av sådana möten förklarar dock att regeringens enda sätt att kontrollera företagen. Palin, som är en stark förespråkare av oljeutvinning varhelst den finns att utvinna, menar att det är just regeringens felageranden som gör att folk tappar tilltron till oljeborrning. Politikerna måste därför förstå vad deras uppgift är. Palin skriver följande:

These decisions and the resulting spill have shaken the public’s confidence in the ability to safely drill. Unless government appropriately regulates oil developments and holds oil executives accountable, the public will not trust them to drill, baby, drill. And we must! Or we will be even more beholden to, and controlled by, dangerous foreign regimes that supply much of our energy.

Hon fortsätter med att förklara hur hon själv gick denna balansgång när hon var guvernör i en delstat som faktiskt haft en hel del att göra med såväl oljeborrning som oljeutsläpp:

This has been a constant refrain from me. As Governor of Alaska, I did everything in my power to hold oil companies accountable in order to prove to the federal government and to the nation that Alaska could be trusted to further develop energy rich land like ANWR and NPR-A. I hired conscientious Democrats and Republicans (because this sure shouldn’t be a partisan issue) to provide me with the best advice on how we could deal with what was a corrupt system of some lawmakers and administrators who were hesitant to play hardball with some in the oil field business. (Remember the Alaska lawmakers, public decision-makers, and business executives who ended up going to jail as a result of the FBI’s investigations of oily corruption.)

As the aforementioned article notes, BP’s operation in Alaska would hurt our state and waste public resources if allowed to continue. That’s why my administration created the Petroleum Systems Integrity Office (PSIO) when we saw proof of improper maintenance of oil infrastructure in our state. We had to verify. And that’s why we instituted new oversight and held BP and other oil companies financially accountable for poor maintenance practices. We knew we could partner with them to develop resources without pussyfooting around with them. As a CEO, it was my job to look out for the interests of Alaskans with the same intensity and action as the oil company CEOs looked out for the interests of their shareholders.

I learned firsthand the way these companies operate when I served as chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (AOGCC). I ended up resigning in protest because my bosses (the Governor and his chief of staff at the time) wouldn’t support efforts to clean up the corruption involving improper conflicts of interest with energy companies that the state was supposed to be watching. (I wrote about this valuable learning experience in my book, “Going Rogue”.) I felt guilty taking home a big paycheck while being reduced to sitting on my thumbs – essentially rendered ineffective as a supervisor of a regulatory agency in charge of nearly 20% of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.

My experience (though, granted, I got the message loud and clear during the campaign that my executive experience managing the fastest growing community in the state, and then running the largest state in the union, was nothing compared to the experiences of a community organizer) showed me how government officials and oil execs could scratch each others’ backs to the detriment of the public, and it made me ill. I ran for Governor to fight such practices. So, as a former chief executive, I humbly offer this advice to the President: you must verify. That means you must meet with Hayward. Demand answers.

I jämförelse med Obamas ass-to-kick-kommentarer så framstår Sarah Palin som ett geni gällande ämnet i fråga. När McCain kampanjade till president 2008 så var hans tanke att Sarah Palin skulle driva energipolitiken, medan han själv drev försvars- och utrikespolitiken. En god idé - i synnerhet när Palins idéer kring den senaste oljekrisen varit bättre än de flesta Obama-administrationen kommit med.

Palin avslutar sitt FB-inlägg med att förklara att Obama inte bör straffa USA genom att använda den här krisen för att motivera nya energiskatter etc. Att BP och de federala övervakarna misslyckades bör inte gå ut över resten av befolkningen i form av nya skatter knutna till oljeprodukter.

Här intervjuas Palin också om ämnet på Fox News, där hon säger ungefär samma saker som i sitt Facebook-inlägg, men där hon också lägger till en del detaljer:



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