The Daily Background

Meet the former Beauty Pageant-winner turned Alaska governor who the Washington Times describes as “the nation’s most prominent advocate of drilling in ANWR.” John McCain, who has previous opposed drilling in ANWR, has picked Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate. Since the single term governor is virtually unknown outside of her home state, I took it upon myself to do some Lexis Nexis-ing.

Christian Science Monitor, December 6, 2006:

She is a self-described “hard-core conservative” who opposes abortion and gay marriage, looks favorably on teaching creationism in public schools, and considers the Republican platform “the right agenda for Alaska.”

It seems that Palin is a major proponent of the oil industry, and has pushed for more drilling in her state, even in protected wildlife areas.

Here’s an excerpt from an AP article today:

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin is a comely candidate with a reputation for fighting corruption, but lately her reputation within the state has been bit by allegations of mixing political and family business, and by mistreating one of the state’s premier marine mammals.

Palin’s catch-phrase of “openness and transparency” has been tarnished by revelations that staff members tried to have Palin’s former brother-in-law fired from his job as an Alaska state trooper.

Also, the governor of the only state with polar bears has adamantly opposed listing the animals as a threatened species, despite strong evidence that global warming has devastated their sea ice environment off Alaska’s coast.

And despite John McCain’s claim Friday that Palin is a budget-cutter, the governor this year oversaw 6 percent increase in Alaska’s operating and construction budget, fueled by a revised tax structure and skyrocketing crude oil prices.

More, from the same article:

But she has been just as dogged trying to protect Alaska’s main industry and cash cow, petroleum extraction, from the side-effects of Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne’s decision to list polar bears as a threatened species.

“Listing polar bears under the Endangered Species Act has the potential to damage Alaska’s and the nation’s economy without any benefit to polar bear numbers or their habitat,” Palin said, a statement environmental groups call ridiculous.

She even went to the length of recently suing the Department of the Interior for its classification of the polar bear as an endangered species. Palin is clearly more interested in drilling for oil anywhere and everywhere than she is in protecting the environment. If John McCain had sought to choose an anti-environmental choice, he couldn’t have made a better one.

Palin’s husband is a former oil worker for the giant oil company BP. He had to “temporarily” step down shortly after her election to avoid the semblance of a conflict of interest, due to all the business that BP does with the state government in Alaska.

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