Palin likens global warming studies to ’snake oil’
Note: Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin spoke at the Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference in Redding, CA yesterday. The following is the AP report.
Palin likens global warming studies to ’snake oil’
By JUDY LIN, San Jose Mercury News, 02/08/2010 [here]
REDDING, Calif.—Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin called studies supporting global climate change a “bunch of snake oil science” Monday during a rare appearance in California, a state that has been at the forefront of environmental regulations.
Palin spoke before a logging conference in Redding, a town of 90,000 about 160 miles north of the state capital. The media were barred from the event, but The Associated Press bought a $74 ticket to attend.
Palin said California’s heavy regulatory environment makes it difficult for businesses to succeed, a point that is shared by many business leaders in the state.
She criticized what she said were heavy-handed environmental laws. As Alaska governor, for example, she said she sued the federal government to overturn the listing of polar bears as a threatened species.
As Alaska North Slope wells dry up, the state is examining offshore drilling for oil and natural gas reserves. Protections for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act could thwart those explorations, according to Palin and her successor, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell, who has picked up the cause.
Palin told the audience that filled the 2,000-seat Redding Convention Center that she disagreed with the science the government used to support the listing.
“We knew the bottom line … was ultimately to shut down a lot of our development,” she said during her 40-minute speech, which was followed by a 20-minute question-and-answer session.
“And it didn’t make any sense because it was based on these global warming studies that now we’re seeing (is) a bunch of snake oil science.”
Palin urged the federal government to allow states to make such decisions for themselves.
Her comments were well-received by the audience members, many of whom brought copies of her book, “Going Rogue,” in hopes of getting Palin’s signature. A second Palin speech in Redding scheduled for the evening was sold out.
The events were hosted by the Sierra-Cascade Logging Conference.
Palin made her appearance in a state that often has led the nation on environmental regulations, from restricting automobile pollution to greenhouse gas emissions.
The state’s Global Warming Solutions Act, which passed in 2006 and has been championed by Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, requires greenhouse gas emissions statewide to be cut to 1990 levels by 2020.
But that and other state environmental laws have come under increasing attack from Republican state lawmakers.
Last week, the secretary of state cleared the sponsors of a ballot petition seeking to suspend the 2006 law until the state unemployment rate falls to 5.5 percent and stays there for a year. Republican gubernatorial candidate Meg Whitman has criticized the law as being too much of an economic burden while businesses are trying to recover from the recession.
Palin also weighed in on the Obama administration’s efforts to secure a climate change treaty during the international conference held recently in Copenhagen.
“Yeah, I don’t think much of it,” Palin said.
She said it was “providential” that President Barack Obama did not return from Denmark with a clear victory after questions arose about figures used in the scientific studies to promote conservation.
“The weather will not change with the proposals,” she said.
Palin struck a sympathetic tone with the crowd, saying she shares the timber industry’s worries of cumbersome lawsuits by environmental groups.
“California is tough in this respect,” Palin said. “Man, it is expensive to do business here and to get anything done … I do think there’s hope though, because more Americans are becoming aware of the absurdity of such a situation. Maybe California is just a little behind the times.”
Palin said she believes there’s a way to harvest timber without damaging the environment but has grown frustrated by environmental activists who want to “lock up the land.”
“We sought to protect the diversity of our forests and our wildlife while sustaining jobs and subsistence for residents of our state,” Palin said of her efforts as governor in trying to develop a vision statement for the Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Conservation groups and the U.S. Forest Service have fought for decades over management of the country’s largest national forest.
She defended herself as a conservationist.
“We really do love our trees,” Palin said. “I named my daughter Willow. Isn’t that granola enough for them?”
by Foo Furb
“Isn’t that granola enough for them?” sums up the whole situation in a nutshell.
They’ve had their day, ruined our forests, wrecked our rural economies. Isn’t that enough? What do we need to do, to make the point that common sense needs to be returned to our resource management and not the enviro nonsense? Walls of mud running through the streets of LA?
by bear bait
And you just have to know how hard it is to make mud run through a street anywhere. Watching your Mercedes Benz do barrel rolls down the street has to be stressful. Or rocks the size of refrigerators rolling through the living room and off the deck.
But you know, you get what you ask for. Mudflows after uncontrolled wildfire in “protected” areas are not unintended consequences. They are predictable events with mathematical certainty over time. It ain’t “if” but “when.”
I, however, don’t lose sleep over human foibles and collective stupidity. It is a waste of time and energy.
I do wish Palin was a lot more experienced in the national issues. Not that I don’t think that she would pick up the pace and do a good job in time. Certainly Harry S. Truman did. His background and life are not that of the Yale and Harvard Law grads, for certain. Pendergast pimp and bawdy house piano player was what Truman’s life could have easily been. And I could see Palin running a fish buying station or being a small market TV reporter as she once was. I know that she does relate to a whole segment of our population that is called upon for all the national military duty, often without a thank you from the hoi poloi. And she sure makes the trust puppies wince. Probably just like I do when some dipwad on TV calls a logger a “lumberjack.”
Another article about Palin’s speech at the Logging Conference:
Sarah Palin Wows Redding Audience
By Doni Greenberg, A News Cafe, February 8, 2010 [here]
Sarah Palin received a rock star’s welcome at the Sierra Cascade Logging Conference where she spoke before the first of two sold-out shows at the Redding Convention Center on Monday afternoon.
That’s 4,000 people who paid between $54 for a balcony seat to $74 for a floor seat. I had a floor seat - second row, so near the tower of speakers that I followed the example of people around me and wadded tissue in my right ear to reduce the volume.
Even so, I heard every word and felt the crowd’s jostling adoration as they cheered and applauded throughout Palin’s speech.
The audience, still euphoric from the Official California Cowboys’ final song, “I’m Proud to Be an American” (where many sang along and shouted “Stand UP!” in unison at the song’s pivotal moment), was already on its feet when Palin was introduced.
The crowd applauded as Palin strode on stage waving and smiling as she took her place behind a lectern before a mammoth American flag in a stars-and-stripes-draped auditorium.
She began by acknowledging veterans’ sacrifices, and asked everyone who’d ever served in the military to stand for a heroes’ recognition.
After that, she read from a prepared speech, heavily peppered with Palin lingo that delighted the audience.
Loud laughter followed Palin’s references to “lame-stream media” and jeers accompanied every reference to global warming. Enthusiastic boos followed a reference to Nancy Pelosi.
She endeared herself to the logging conference crowd by holding her hand up to show what was written on her palm: “Loggers rock!” - an apparent dig at “lame-stream media” who recently ridiculed her for writing memory prompts on her hand. And toward the end of her talk she complimented logging industry folks when she referred to an administration that talks about green jobs.
“You guys were doing green jobs before green jobs were even cool!”
And although Palin tailored some of her speech especially for the logging industry, her message also had the ring of someone running for office as she recounted a lifetime of accomplishments, from city council and mayor to governor and vice presidential candidate.
She made frequent jabs at ”the feds” and Washington and “the people in charge” and took them to task for everything from “obstructionist tactics” that threaten industry to doing a “whole lot of talk without a whole lot of action.”
Wild applause followed many of her points, including:
- “Washington needs to stop lecturing and start listening.”
- “We need basic common-sense government with fiscal restraint and limited control.”
- “We need to stand up and tell government to back off.”
- “Sometimes I wonder if anyone in Washington has ever run a business.”
- “Washington wants us to think this is all over our head. Obviously, they want us to sit down and shut up.”
- “Washington needs to walk the walk.”
- “We need an all-of-the-above approach to drilling, digging and mining, and support for nuclear energy.”
- “A lot of green is wishful thinking … in the meantime we have to drill here now and tap into our plentiful supplies.”
- “I named my daughter Willow. Isn’t that granola enough for ya?” (Regarding forest preservation.) … [more]
by Ned
I have heard that God ordered the snow in Washington to continue until Al Gore yells uncle. I hope it does even if it takes all year. The government shutdown is good for the country.
Sarah sez, “Loggers Rock!”
That’s got to be causing some teeth grinding in certain circles!
I have met and worked with some incredible loggers who care very much how their “finished product” looks. A logging job can look very ugly and still meet specifications. Also, a logging job can look just great and not meet specifications. Some loggers find that there is some financial benefit to doing a clean job that shows expert workmanship. As a former Federal timber sale inspector, I know that I certainly liked officially documenting exceptional work done by the contractors. Good words on a government inspection report makes a logger want to keep doing it! Amazing how that works, eh?
Funny side note… “I’m Proud to be an American” was also a satirical song done by The Tubes (a favorite of mine), back in the 70’s. It actually won a country-western award from an industry group that didn’t understand the mocking humor.
People who live in wood-frame houses shouldn’t throw stones at loggers.
Agree a thousand percent with Sarah!
Right on Sarah!