Following is the complete transcript of Gov. Palin's Facebook Note on
Obama's inaction pertaining to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill:
Nearly 40 days in, our President finally addressed the
American people’s growing concerns about the Gulf Coast oil spill.
Listening to today’s press conference, you’d think the administration
has been working with single-minded focus on the Gulf gusher since the
start of the disaster. In reality, their focus has been anything but
singular to help solve this monumental problem.
If the President really was fully focused on this issue from day one,
why did it take nine whole days before the administration asked
the Department of Defense for help in deploying equipment needed for
the extreme depth spill site?
Why was the expert group assembled by Energy Commissioner Steven Chu
only set up three weeks after the start of this disaster?
Why was Governor Jindal forced more than a month after the start of the disaster
to go on national television to beg for materials needed to tackle the
oil spill and for federal approval to build offshore sand barriers that
are imperative to protect his state’s coastline?
Why was no mention of the spill made by our President for days on end
while Americans waited to hear if he grasped the import of his
leadership on this energy issue?
Why have several countries and competent organizations who offered
help or expertise in dealing with the spill not even received a
response back from the Unified Area Command to this day?
The President claimed that “this notion that somehow the federal
government is somehow sitting on the sidelines and for the last three
or four or five weeks we’ve just been letting BP make a whole bunch of
decisions is simply not true.” But, in fact, that is how U.S. Coast
Guard Commandant Thad Allen described the Obama administration’s
approach to this crisis: “We keep a close watch.”
Listening to the President, you get the impression he is continually
surprised by the inability of various centralized government agencies
to get more involved and help solve problems. His lack of executive
experience might explain this because he is apparently unaware that it’s
his job as a chief executive to make sure they do their jobs and help
solve problems.
The fundamental problem at the core of this crisis is a lack of
responsibility. (I risk the President taking my comments personally, but
they’re not intended to be personal; my comments reflect what many
others feel, and we just want to help him tackle this enormous spill
problem.) There’s a culture of buck-passing at the heart of this
administration that has caused the tragedy of a sunken oil rig to turn
into a potential disaster.
The 1990 Oil Pollution Act was drafted in response to
the Exxon-Valdez spill in my home state. It created new
procedures for offshore cleanups, specifically putting the federal
government in charge of such operations. The President should have used
the authority granted by the OPA – immediately – to take control of
the situation. That is a big part of what the OPA is for – to designate
who is in charge so finger-pointing won’t disrupt efforts to just
“plug the d#*! hole.” But instead of immediately engaging with this
crisis, our President chose to spend precious time on political pet
causes like haranguing the state of Arizona for doing what he himself
was supposed to do – secure the nation’s border. He also spent much
time fundraising and politicking for liberal candidates and causes
while we waited for him to grasp the enormity of the Gulf spill.
Now that the American people are calling him out on his lack of
engagement with this disaster, the buck-passing is in full swing – and,
unbelievably, his administration is still looking to blame his
predecessor. Amazingly, even those of us who support energy independence
for America are the brunt of some buck-passing.
He suggested today that a “culture of corruption” at the U.S.
Minerals Management Service (MMS) was solely the previous
administration’s responsibility and that the failure of the inspection
system was a failure of that administration. That is false. The MMS has
been his responsibility since January 20, 2009.
The MMS director who resigned today, Elizabeth Birnbaum, was appointed
by his administration. And the most recent inspection
of the oil rig took place a mere 10 days before the explosion – also very much on his watch, not President Bush’s.
The President is also now attempting to somehow distance himself from
his administration’s recent decision to open a few areas of the
continental shelf to oil and gas exploration. That’s unfortunate because
America desperately needs our domestic oil and natural gas. We rely on
it for our prosperity, security, and freedom. The President’s decision
to open a few areas to offshore exploration was the right decision
then; and unlike his quickly evolving position on energy development
now, I continue to believe it’s the right decision today – because
energy independence is in the long-term economic and security interests
of the United States.
As I explained in an article in National Review last year,
conventional sources like natural gas “can act as a clean ‘bridge fuel’
to a future when more renewable sources are available.” I do not, as
the President mistakenly believes, think we can “drill, baby, drill”
our way out of all of our troubles. As I have consistently stated, we
need an “all of the above” approach to energy independence that
combines conventional drilling with energy conservation and
renewable-energy development. My record in Alaska clearly shows my
commitment to this “all of the above” approach. Over 20 percent of
Alaska’s electricity currently comes from renewable sources. As
governor, I put forward a long-term plan to increase that figure to 50
percent by 2025, which is the most ambitious renewable energy target in
the nation. I take great pride in helping to make Alaska, in the words
of the New York Times, “a Frontier for Green Power,” even as we continue
to embrace the need to “drill, baby, drill” at the same time.
Alaska can be that frontier for renewable energy only because our
conventional oil and gas reserves provide us with “a bridge” to a
greener energy future. In fact, Alaska has enough reserves of both oil
and gas to help the United States cross that bridge – if only we are
allowed to drill!
Please, Mr. President, hear me on this, if nothing else: if it’s your
administration’s decision to suspend the leases of new oil field
developments off the coast of Alaska in response to the Gulf’s deepwater
spill, and you still remain committed to locking up ANWR and other
oil-rich lands, please know you are making a mistake. Unless we continue
to drill here and drill now, we risk digging ourselves deeper into the
hole created by our continued dependence on foreign energy – which
often comes from regimes that care nothing for our prosperity or
security, and even less for global environmental safety.
We need affordable, reliable, secure, environmentally-sound, and
domestically-produced energy, but this administration continues to lock
up federal land filled with huge energy reserves. If there is to be a
moratorium on offshore development, then it’s time we stop ignoring our
safest options for domestic development – places like ANWR and NPR-A in
my home state of Alaska.
And it’s time for the administration to stop passing the buck and get
control of the disaster in the Gulf. There’s a reason why Harry Truman
had that famous sign on his desk. The “buck stops” with the occupant
of the Oval Office. When the American people elected President Obama
they gave him responsibility to handle this disaster. He promised to
“heal the earth, and watch the waters recede...” or something
far-fetched like that. It was unbelievable then, it’s impossible now,
but what I believe he meant was that he promised to be held
accountable. With all due respect, Mr. President, you have a huge job
in front of you. We hope you’re learning. Please learn that we must
have domestic energy development, you must stop looking backward and
blaming Bush, and we must all work together to “plug the d#*! hole.”
- Sarah Palin
Ronald Reagan once said "let there be bold differences, no pale
pastels." The difference between Obama and Gov. Palin could not be more
stark. He has been remarkably absent on this issue, and has demonstrated
absolutely no leadership. Instead, he plays the blame game, fobbing the
issue off to an administration that has been out of office now for 15
months. He is reverting to the same failed policies of the last four
decades.
The solution is not to stop drilling. One of the first lessons we
learn in life is came when we fell off our bikes as children. We didn't
throw our bikes in the garbage and run home crying. We got up, dusted
ourselves off, got back on the bike and learned to balance ourselves
better. In this case, it appears BP took a grave shortcut, which led to
the explosion and subsequent leak.