Drill, Baby, Drill!: Palin

(NEWSER) - President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan is actually a "cap-and-tax" plan that is an "enormous threat to our economy," Sarah Palin writes in the Washington Post. In an op-ed piece she predicts will disappoint "the chattering class," who prefer "personality-driven political gossip," she says fighting this bill will be a priority for her. We need energy policy reform, she says. "But the answer doesn't lie in making energy scarcer and more expensive!" More»

Court clears the way for exploratory drill

(NEWSER) - Shell got the go ahead to ' drill, baby, drill ' in the Arctic this summer, after a three-judge panel rejected a legal challenge standing in the way of their plans. The court determined that the federal Minerals Management Service ( Um, remember them? ) weighed the potential threat to wildlife and the risk of disaster before it approved the project. Environmentalists, of course, aren't happy: "They are pushing the limits and increasing the risk by heading to the deep water of the gulf and the remote and unforgiving Arctic," one tells the AP . More»

Interior Dept. study sees offshore turbines generating energy

(NEWSER) - Offshore winds are a largely untapped resource that could potentially supply the US with even more electricity than it currently needs, according to a new Interior Department report. The report says the area off the Atlantic coast could meet more than one-fourth of the national power demand, but the fact that it omits mention of untapped oil and gas reserves has critics crying foul, reports the Los Angeles Times. More»

(AP) - Sarah Palin's first two years as Alaska's governor were a time of milk, honey, and crude, with sky-high oil prices pumping wealth into the state. The second half of her term isn't looking so rosy. The rapid decline of oil prices has left the state with a looming budget shortfall of up to $1.5 billion. That could have political repercussions for the former Republican vice presidential hopeful, who must stay visible in the Lower 48 if she's to have a hope in a 2012 presidential bid. More»

Governor's much-touted initiative could be derailed as gas, oil prices fall

(NEWSER) - A sour economy and tumbling oil prices might sink Sarah Palin’s oft-touted Alaskan natural-gas pipeline, the Wall Street Journal reports. Low prices and increased natural-gas production in the lower 48 are causing energy companies to reconsider the $30 billion project. Without the revenue-generating pipeline, Alaskans who depend on the state’s dividend checks might soon actually be paying taxes themselves. More»