Drill, Baby, Drill: Breaking Down Sarah Palin's VP Speech

Introducing herself to a nation that has mostly been preoccupied by her family drama, Sarah Palin talked energy in last night's speech, and many environmentalists were not comforted by what they heard.

From her prepared remarks:

To confront the threat that Iran might seek to cut off nearly a fifth of world energy supplies...or that terrorists might strike again at the Abqaiq facility in Saudi Arabia...or that Venezuela might shut off its oil deliveries...we Americans need to produce more of our own oil and gas.

And take it from a gal who knows the North Slope of Alaska: We've got lots of both.

Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve all of America's energy problems—as if we all didn't know that already.

But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to do nothing at all.

Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going to lay more pipelines...build more new-clear[sic] plants...create jobs with clean coal...and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal and other alternative sources.

She took direct aim at Obama's environmental stance with the quote, "What does he actually seek to accomplish, after he's done turning back the waters and healing the planet?"

Previous to that, during Rudy Giuliani's speech, the crowd had started an impromptu cheer of "Drill, Baby, Drill." Somewhere in America, Al Gore wept.

In all seriousness, it's great that Palin isn't in denial about drilling's ability to solve all of our problems. However, since talk of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge began, bloggers and reporters have been eager to point out that the oil will do nothing to ease our woes. Oil is a global commodity with prices set by global supply and demand, regardless of where it is drilled. And even if oil from the refuge did provide relief, it would be 10 years before we would see it—enough time to develop renewable resources, rather than "doing nothing at all," as this gal from the North Slope of Alaska says.

What do you think? Will Palin be good for our gas tanks and our wallets?