Drill, Baby, DRILL!!!
But she forgot to follow that up with "so we can sell it to Asia for twice as much"
TIME Magazine reports that Governor Palin supported a request (that was granted by the Dept of Energy) by Marathon Oil/Conoco Philips to export "about 100 billion cubic feet of gas to Asia over two years from the roughly 300 billion cubic feet of gas that is likely to be produced".
More below....
The natural gas producers in Alaska were in a pickle; they had a surplus of natural gas that they didn't know what to do with. Without a pipeline (which has become a total boondoggle) they can't get the gas to the lower 48.
At least not before Sempra Energy in San Diego built a HUGE natural gas ditribution facility in the Baja peninsula:
But since this past May, some of Alaska's gas could have wound up in domestic hands. San Diego-based Sempra Energy opened the first LNG terminal on the West Coast of North America. The Mexican facility, a $975 million project, is tied directly to the gas pipeline system that leads to California, Texas and Arizona.
Being such an "energy expert" it is surprising that she didn't know about this huge facility coming online (it was big news in the energy community), ready and waiting to receive the surplus Alaskan natural gas - a quantity that could supply the annual consumption of 1.4 million American families.
The Sempra terminal began operations just four months after Palin announced unconditional support for the Marathon and ConocoPhillips request and a month before DOE approved their plans to export gas to Asia.
Instead, Asian families get the gas and Alaskans get more $$ in their pockets. She did intervene in the DOE decision, however - she wanted to make sure that Alaska kept enough of the gas for their own consumption.
Alright Palin - WTF? America first, or Alaska first?