From Matt Yglesias:
Sarah Palin, during her interview with Charlie Gibson said that Akaska producers “nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy.”
That was a lie. And people in the press pointed out that it was a lie. So Palin changed her line. And she told a rally in Colorado yesterday that “My job has been to oversee nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas.”
First off, the 20% line is a blatant lie: Alaska produces 13% of the U.S. oil supply and under 2.3% of natural gas, for about 3.5% of the total American domestic energy supply. So Alaska actually produces six times less energy than she thinks it does.
Second point- by no means has it been her job to "oversee 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of oil and gas." It's not NY Governor David Paterson's job to oversee the majority of securities litigation or derivatives trading, just because they take place in New York. Paterson didn't even pass the bar, but somehow the practice of law in New York City hums along just fine. The governor of California doesn't oversee movie-making (a good thing during the Gray Davis years). My hometown, Oswego, NY, has three nuclear plants- but that doesn't make the mayor a nuclear engineer.
1 comment:
Re: oversight
Small quibble. A lot of the oil and gas is probably produced on state land or federal land that Alaska has some oversight of. Likewise, a lot of the environmental and transportation issues probably are handled by the state, ie the Oil and Gas commission y'all have heard so much about lately. So I think that makes it a little different from the Mayor of Oswego. As far as the courts go, would be too too much of a stretch to say that the NY Court of Appeal and Second Circuit oversee all that litigation? It would be true in a sense, and I think that's the more apt comparison than Gov. Paterson. This is not to say that I think she's doing a heckuva job or anything, just that it's more like a misrepresentation than a fantasy.
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