Our energy expert....(Updated)

John McCain has claimed that our own Governor Sarah Palin  "knows more about energy than probably anyone else in the United States of America." That's quite a compliment.

However this week in Michigan, Palin took what was an easy question from a friendly supporter at a town hall meeting and turned it into an absolutely incoherent answer.

When asked by a supporter how she could ensure that the resource derived from expanded domestic oil & gas drilling would be kept at home to benefit consumers in the United States, Palin showed just how much she really knows about energy. 

"Oil and coal? Of course, it's a fungible commodity and they don't flag, you know, the molecules, where it's going and where it's not. But in the sense of the Congress today, they know that there are very, very hungry domestic markets that need that oil first. So, I believe that what Congress is going to do, also, is not to allow the export bans to such a degree that it's Americans that get stuck to holding the bag without the energy source that is produced here, pumped here. It's got to flow into our domestic markets first."

For those of us who have watched Palin for years this gibberish is understandable, especially given her propensity for grabbing on to sound bites. This time however, she combined a mash of unrelated sound bites into one big garbled answer.

First, the bit about the flagging of the molecules came from recent legislative discussions regarding the governor's natural gas pipeline proposal. In legislative testimony, the explanation of the flagging of the molecules had to do with Alaska's natural gas that was being proposed to be shipped into a Canadian hub. The concern from lawmakers is that our gas wouldn't make it to domestic midwest markets, instead ending up being used in Canada.

The explanation from TransCanada was that natural gas is fungible and although they can't flag molecules to ensure the exact Alaska molecules of gas get to Chicago, the gas will get there in the agreed upon quantities.

Second, the sound bite of "hungry markets" is one of Palin's classic glittering generalities. She has used this line before to talk about the demand for Alaska's natural gas. The problem is that she has yet to put together a coherent plan on how to get Alaska's natural gas to market.

In her State of the State speech in January of 2008, this is what she said about her gas pipeline proposal: "AGIA cleared the path for our gas to feed hungry local markets and to help secure the country with a safe, stable, and domestic supply of clean energy."

In reality her gas pipeline plan did little more than grant a Canadaina company $500 million in taxpayer money to push paperwork and wait until Exxon, BP and ConocoPhillips decide to write the checks to pay for the pipeline.  

Third, the comments about her belief that Congress won't allow export bans to the point where Americans don't have access to domestically produced energy supplies makes you stop and ask if she actually knows what an export ban is.

How in the world does an export ban on a product create a shortage for the producing market? If Congress were to impose  export bans on domestically produced energy, by the nature of an export ban, Americans would have access to all of the domestically produced energy.       

But this isn't the first time that Palin has shown a serious inability to grasp basic energy related issues.

On Monday September 15, Palin was a call in guest on the Bob & Mark Show, a local radio program. One of the hosts, Bob Lester, said Palin needed to look into the fact that Enstar had recently announced they were raising their natural gas rates by 22% this winter. Alaskans in rural areas would be bankrupt, Lester stated.

Palin agreed and stated that the public needed to make sure companies like Enstar are held accountable. Palin's response is meaningless.

Enstar is a gas transportation company that simply provides the infrastructure to deliver the gas. Their rates are established by the Regulatory Commission of Alaska and the 22% increase is a result of the increased cost of purchasing the gas from Cook Inlet suppliers.

This increase is not a revenue increase for Enstar, it simply covers the increased cost and is a pass through to the consumer. These costs are based on a matrix of long term contracts, some of which are tied to the price of a barrel of oil. As we know, the average price of a barrel of oil has risen almost $50 per barrel over the last year, hence the increase.

In addition, Enstars rates have no impact on rural Alaska because they don't transport natural gas out of southcentral Alaska. In fact their is no natural gas usage in rural Alaskan communities.

To see the CNN video of Palin's comments:

http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2008/09/22/sarah-palin-gibberish-we-can-believe-in/