Palin Touts ‘Flawed’ Pipeline Process As ‘Free Market Competition’
Palin Touts ‘Flawed’ Pipeline Process As ‘Free Market Competition’
This morning, Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) delivered her second policy speech of the entire campaign, on energy — a fitting topic, considering Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) considers her to be America’s foremost energy expert. Along with praising coal and expanded drilling, Palin touted her own experience in achieving “progress” on a natural gas pipeline in Alaska, claiming she “introduced” “free-market competition” to Big Oil:
[Oil companies] should have been competing to invest in a new means of delivering their product to market. They should have been competing for the right to tap into the hungry markets, flowing our resources into those hungry markets, and instead they wanted a higher and higher price than any fair competition would yield. So they wouldn’t build the line. [...]
So we introduced, when I got elected, we introduced the big oil companies and their lobbyists to a concept of something that evidently they had forgotten, and that’s free-market competition. They had a monopoly previously on power and resources, and we broke it.
Watch it:
Hardly using a free market approach, Palin’s “flawed bidding process” actually “narrowed the field to a company with ties to her administration,” according to an AP investigation:
Despite Palin’s boast of a smart and fair bidding process, the AP found that her team crafted terms that favored only a few independent pipeline companies and ultimately benefited the winner, TransCanada Corp. [...]
– Instead of creating a process that would attract many potential builders, Palin slanted the terms away from an important group — the global energy giants that own the rights to the gas. [...]
– Under a different set of rules four years earlier, TransCanada had offered to build the pipeline without a state subsidy; under Palin, the company could receive a maximum $500 million.
“Most definitely TransCanada got a sweetheart deal this time,” Republican state senator Bert Stedman said.
Throughout the campaign, Palin and McCain have boasted that Palin “was responsible for…a pipeline, the $40 billion pipeline bringing natural gas from Alaska down to the lower 48.” Neither seems to care that the pipeline “exists only on paper;” construction on the first section has not even begun. In fact, despite the $500 million award, TransCanada is not even obligated to build the pipeline.
Transcript:
Ever since I grew up I remember hearing about this dream for a natural gas pipeline. But all it was was talk.
And one of the main obstacles was big oil itself that wanted a pipeline, a gas pipeline even, to be built only on their terms. ExxonMobil was one of the participants in that, and other companies also.They should have been competing to invest in a new means of delivering their product to market. They should have been competing for the right to tap into the hungry markets flowing our resources into those hungry markets, and instead they wanted a higher and higher price than any fair competition would yield. So they wouldn’t build the line. They were holding out for more billions of dollars in public money. No one in good conscience could pay them what they wanted to build that gas line. And that’s how things were left, that’s how we found them, when I decided to run for governor. There was no progress, no pipeline, no gas revenue for Alaska, no added energy security for America because previously it had been all talk.
So we introduced, when I got elected, we introduced the big oil companies and their lobbyists to a concept of something that evidently they had forgotten, and that’s free-market competition. They had a monopoly previously on power and resources, and we broke it. And the result finally is progress on the largest private-sector infrastructure project in North America’s history — a nearly forty billion dollar natural gas pipeline to help lead America to energy independence.
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Sweetheart deals are the Republican way
October 29th, 2008 at 5:27 pmThis is great news for me– how can I also apply to get a 500 million dollar deal, Ms. Palin, without having to do anything for it?
October 29th, 2008 at 5:31 pmThe (Fill in the blank, eg: bridge, pipeline, campaign) to nowhere!
October 29th, 2008 at 5:34 pmDamn! I forgot Medical records.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:34 pmNow that’s the kind of Republican free market deals Bush made for much of his term in office. Indefinite quantity, indefinite delivery, and guaranteed to make his political friends big money.
Why do you think private equity keeps lining up at the government tit? Treasury’s John Snow applied for Cerberus to get some of that $700 billion in Wall Street bailout money. He applied for GMAC to get commercial bank status.
Palin/Bush know how to Corporafornicate…
October 29th, 2008 at 5:36 pmBut, but…she’s a maverick and she’s an energy “Expert” (snicker, giggle) and she can see Russia from there and she is gonna donate those clothes to charity and she gonna return all the money she has stolen from Alaskans and she is from “Real” America and the rest of us aren’t and etc. etc. etc.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:36 pmdasm Says:”… how can I also apply to get a 500 million dollar deal, Ms. Palin, without having to do anything for it?”
Just like she did: Stand on the street corner, name your price, collect in advance, stiff the John.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:38 pmIf you get it on her face it’s double
October 29th, 2008 at 5:41 pmPalin is a liar. Take a few letters out of “country” and you’ll have the secret word for Sarah.
O/T: why in bloody hell is the Fluffball host, Chris Matthews wasting his time and our time by interviewing the convicted criminal Tom Delay? Why isn’t Tom Delay locked up yet and serving his time in prison?
PS: are the Republican-rigged “polls narrowingz’ to prepare the American people for another Diebolding of our Democracy? We were Diebolded in 2000, 2002, 2004 and a little in 2006 (the GOP was swamped by Dem votes and they wanted to save their electronic election hacking, rigging and stealing techniques for the big prize, the 2008 Presidential Election). And why have the corporate Democrats been so unwilling to stop GOP election theft? Dems are complicit with the GOP raping of America. Why?
October 29th, 2008 at 5:42 pmShe’s a Compulsive and Pathological Liar…
McCain-Palin are LIARS, HYPOCRITES and FRAUDS.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:50 pmMcCain-Palin are LIARS, HYPOCRITES and FRAUDS.
McCain-Palin are LIARS, HYPOCRITES and FRAUDS.
McCain-Palin are LIARS, HYPOCRITES and FRAUDS.
McCain-Palin are LIARS, HYPOCRITES and FRAUDS.
McCain-Palin are LIARS, HYPOCRITES and FRAUDS.
McCain-Palin are LIARS, HYPOCRITES and FRAUDS.
McCain-Palin are LIARS, HYPOCRITES and FRAUDS.
I wonder if “big oil” will respond to her allegations.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:52 pmReally now, don’t you think The Diva looks and sounds so presidential? So commanding of the subject matter. And like most politicans, not afraid to take all the credit for herself.
I mean, I’m just wondering if any of the Alaskan legislators helped in creating this project or did she create this “paper-pipeline” all by herself.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:56 pmBible Spice certainly doesn’t waste opportunities…
to lie her a$$ off.
October 29th, 2008 at 5:57 pmO.T., but just saw this in the on-line edition of the NYT. You should all get a laugh out of this one.
If he gets his way, Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, also known as “Joe the Plumber,” plans to enjoy a lot more than just 15 minutes of fame. Two weeks after emerging as the Republican Party’s favorite proxy for the American working man, Mr. Wurzelbacher has signed a management deal meant to keep him in the public eye past next week’s election and earn him some money at the same time, preferably as a show business personality.
http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/29/joe-you-know-who-gets-a-manager/
October 29th, 2008 at 5:57 pmPalin:
October 29th, 2008 at 5:57 pm“Ya and doncha know, Joe here is gonna build that pipeline, all by himself, you betcha!”
‘Flawed’? That’s a bit mild isn’t it?
Indeed isn’t there a pptentially bigger story here than just bad management and influence peddling.
Palin gave $500 million to TransCanada, why?
So she could just brag about a %40 billion project?
Is that all there is?
Did Palin only get a talking point, or did she got something else we don’t yet know about?
And what about TransCanada? What kind of company takes $500 million dollars and then does nothing? Was the contract that bad that they have no obligation to do anything, or have they engaged in fraud>?
October 29th, 2008 at 5:58 pmWhy does she keep talking about this imaginary pipeline??
October 29th, 2008 at 6:17 pmmust share here too…just got home… getting caught up, my TP fix…
found this article on the googlenews page, knowing the story from bits of randi’s show…
this palin statement is RICH:
“It must be nice for a candidate to have major news organizations looking after his best interests like that,” Palin said in Bowling Green, Ohio. “Maybe some politicians would love to have a pet newspaper of their very own. In this case, we have a newspaper willing to throw aside even the public’s right to know in order to protect a candidate that its own editorial board has endorsed.”
are they blockheadedly stupid or outright LIARS…
it’s a cinch they think the people are stupid… too many are…
McCain, Palin criticize L.A. Times over Obama video
October 29th, 2008 at 6:21 pmhttp://www.latimes.com/ news/ nationworld/ world/ middleeast/ la-na-video30-2008oct30,0,7519467.story
“Well, don’tcha know, it’s a fungible commodity!” *wink*
October 29th, 2008 at 6:25 pmMaybe Joe The Imaginary Plumber can get an imaginary job not working on the Imaginary Pipeline.
October 29th, 2008 at 6:26 pmPalin deserves a nickname for her blind ambition.
I suggest “winky”; let’s make it stick.
October 29th, 2008 at 7:01 pmHey, don’t try to take away Palin’s one accomplishment. Oh yeah, that and her husband won some race. How her husband winning a race makes her qualified is beyond me, but that’s what McCain said. http://straighttalkonmccain.blogspot.com/
October 30th, 2008 at 12:57 amLordy Lord,
Palin’s language that is supposed to be speaking to adults?
Wasn’t there a childs game called, “hungry, hungry markets ” ?
October 30th, 2008 at 3:36 amMy best guess is that, after five deliveries, she has hemroids down to her knees.
All Palin has going for her is her sexual persona. Finding out that she howls like an Alaskan wolf everytime she has a bowel movement might detract from her carefully crafted image.
October 30th, 2008 at 6:44 am