Bizarre, Environment, Politics, Society

Palin: Oil Spill is the Fault of Environmentalists

On the heels of Rush Limbaugh suggesting actual sabotage by environmentalists, Sarah Palin is joining the cause in blaming environmentalists for the oil spill by British Petroleum in the Gulf of Mexico.

Palin blamed “misguided radicalism” of environmentalists (as opposed presumably to “guided radicalism” of conservatives) for the disaster. She suggested that, if only these poor struggling oil companies were allowed to drill in wildlife reserves and close to our shores, they would not have to seek oil in the deep ocean.

She added “[t]his is a message to extreme ‘environmentalists’ who hypocritically protest domestic energy production offshore and onshore. There is nothing ‘clean and green’ about your efforts. With your non-sensical 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.”

In the meantime, members of Congress and oil lobbyists are demanding that the moratorium on drilling be lifted immediately.

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126 thoughts on “Palin: Oil Spill is the Fault of Environmentalists”

  7. Blouise,

    Please, do not disparage tannin…’cause remember, that tannin’ is all ‘bout dyes, neither ’bout lies nor John ‘tan man’ Boehner.

  8. Bdaman –

    “False Statement, we have plenty.”

    Then why do we purchase oil from the world market? Why aren’t we just using out own “homegrown” oil to fuel our society?

    Explain, please.

  9. Slap a tea bag on her and dunk her in hot water. The woman is full of tannin.

  10. Natural Oil Seeps and the Deepwater Horizon Disaster: A Comparison of Magnitudes

    “The Deepwater Horizon site releases 3 to 12 times the oil per day compared to that released by natural seeps across the entire Gulf of Mexico. By May 30, the Deepwater Horizon site had released between 468,000 and 741,000 barrels of oil, compared to 60,000 to 150,000 barrels from natural seeps across the entire Gulf of Mexico over the same 39 day period.”

    Pols can play down the environmental impact all they like but in the end nature proves them wrong.

  11. I’d like to see the environmental impact reports on Palin’s hairspray use. You betcha!

  12. I feel so guilty. All those dead turtles and pelicans! And it’s all my fault!

    I’ll never recycle again!

  14. we do not have enough oil on our land or in our seas to satisfy our national desire for petroleum.

    False Statement, we have plenty.

  15. This woman is either totally ignorant of the oil market or terminally dishonest. Drilling anywhere in the U.S. or in deep water off our shores does not free us from “control by foreign countries” – we do not have enough oil on our land or in our seas to satisfy our national desire for petroleum, and ALL the oil we purchase to fulfill our gluttonous habit is purchased on the world market, regardless of where it comes from. If she wanted to be helpful she would be lecturing her minions to conserve, conserve, conserve. But the woman has never aspired to be helpful, just reactionary and obnoxious.

  16. Environmentalists, already peeved with the administration’s handling of the Gulf oil spill, are accusing President Obama of breaking his campaign pledge to end the slaughter of whales.

    The Obama administration is leading an effort within the International Whaling Commission to lift a 24-year international ban on commercial whaling for Japan, Norway and Iceland, the remaining three countries in the 88-member commission that still hunt whales.

    The administration argues that the new deal will save thousands of whales over the next decade by stopping the three countries from illegally exploiting loopholes in the moratorium.

    But environmentalists aren’t buying it.

    http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/05/obama-backing-deal-lift-global-ban-commercial-whaling/

  19. Palin is partially correct. All else equal, oil companies would prefer to drill in simpler conditions to lower costs. It is government policy – including liability caps – that encouraged firms to take such risks.

    Earlier I wrote:

    Yet this is what the government has done on behalf of the oil industry, setting limits to legitimate damages. Government set up a tax to fund the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund. In exchange for this small tax ultimately paid by consumers, the industry enjoys a $75M cap on liability. With that artificially lowered liability comes an incentive for increased risk taking. Government policy also drove where these risks will be taken, since exploration is heavily regulated.

    Risky deep water drilling in places like the Gulf of Mexico is economically feasible because of government policy, not because of a blind profit motive.

    It does seem unlikely that government policy on deep water drilling was really the result of environmental concerns. That said, pressure by environmentalists encourages government to keep most energy projects out of the public eye. We even saw this with innocuous proposals like the Cape Wind project in Massachusetts. Offshore drilling was largely unseen, making it desirable from a policy perspective. That has probably changed.

  20. Surely a lot will change after this oil spill accident. A lot of people will no longer sympathize with those who support off shore drilling. And I think Palin and most neo-conservatives support an off shore drilling position. I am not sure though.

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