WASHINGTON — Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice presidential candidate who helped popularize “drill, baby, drill” as a slogan, suggested Sunday that President Barack Obama’s campaign ties to the oil industry were impeding cleanup of the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs responded that Palin should better inform herself about oil politics and policy.
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” the former Alaska governor said she remained a “big supporter” of oil drilling but believed “these oil companies have got to be held accountable.”
Pointing to what she termed the White House’s relationship with “the oil companies who have so supported President Obama in his campaign and are supportive of him now,” Palin wondered aloud “if there’s any connection there to President Obama taking so doggone long to get in there, to dive in there, and grasp the complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the Gulf of Mexico.”
The oil and gas industry donated $2.4 million to Palin’s running mate, Republican Sen. John McCain, in the 2008 election cycle, and nearly $900,000 to Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ opensecrets.org website.
Palin said Sunday that she remained “a strong supporter of domestic energy supplies being extracted,” and she said onshore drilling can be safer than in ocean waters.
“Maybe this is a lesson too for those who oppose safe, domestic supplies being extracted on our shores and on the land,” she said, citing regions in Alaska. “Let us drill there where it is even safer than way offshore.”
Palin has been a longtime advocate of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which environmentalists say should remain protected.
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