newsminer.com

Photo by R. A. Dillon

Washington, D.C. — Gov. Sarah Palin met with likely Republican presidential nominee John McCain here on Saturday to discuss the state’s energy priorities and other issues. Palin, a Republican, said she pressed the U.S. senator from Arizona on Alaska’s need to develop its natural resources in order to reduce its dependence on federal largess.

“Our focus is on recognizing and acknowledging that we need those green, clean sources of energy,” Palin said. “But there’s going to be a gap between now and when those sources of energy come online … so filing that gap has got to be the conventional sources of energy.”

McCain has been an outspoken critic of the state’s push to allow oil and natural gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But Palin said that doesn’t fit with McCain’s other passion — earmark reform.

Palin said the state has to be allowed to grow its economy by tapping into its underground riches if it’s going to shrink the amount of money it requests from Congress each year.

“Sen. McCain and I disagree on ANWR, but he recognizes that we’ve got to be energy independent for national security reasons and for our economy,” Palin said.

McCain was more supportive of other Alaska energy projects, Palin said.

“He is committed to doing whatever he can for Alaska’s natural gas pipeline. That was very, very encouraging,” she said. Palin said she liked McCain and thinks Alaskans will support him in November.

“I appreciate that he’s a maverick,” she said. “He’s independent from excessive partisanship. All those things I think that resonate very well with Alaskans.”

Palin said she would also be able to work with the two Democratic front-runners in the presidential contest, though she would prefer to see McCain win the job.

Palin, who is in Washington through Tuesday for the National Governors Association’s annual winter meeting, met with McCain twice on Saturday, including at a dinner with his wife.

As for rumors that Palin would make a good vice presidential running mate for McCain, Palin said: “You know the answer to that one. It’s always that I love my job as governor.”

The suggestion is flattering to the state, though, Palin said.

“What’s flattering is that anyone is looking up at Alaska and saying there’s some contributing factors in Alaska — from elected officials to possibilities with our resources — being able to contribute more to the United States,” she said. “That should flatter the entire state of Alaska, not me personally.”

Palin said she spoke with McCain about his plans to reform the federal budget process by curbing the use of congressional earmarks to fund pet projects; an issue he’s made central to his campaign for president.

The writing is on the wall, change is coming, Palin said. “Alaska is not going to be able to request that the rest of the United States pay for projects that are going to be perceived as solely benefiting Alaskans anymore,” she said. “They are going to have to have national implications.

“I know that I get criticized from some for saying things like that because they say, ‘but we are a young state and we’re lacking in the infrastructure that other states have benefited from for many, many more decades then Alaska has.’

“Maybe so. So be it. But the reality is from Congress to the White House on down, Alaskans are being told wake up, you have to be less reliant on the federal government. So I’m saying, ‘OK then let us be less reliant on you. Allow us to develop our resources. Let us prove to you that we can responsibly and safely do this.’”

Palin has told her staff to limit the number of requests for earmarks to the congressional delegation.

Her opposition to earmarks has strained her relationship with the state’s congressional delegation. Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, who both face tough re-election fights this year, have been outspoken supporters of the earmark process, which they say allows them to better direct funding to worthy projects back home.

Palin has clashed repeatedly with the delegation over earmark reform and her efforts to get a North Slope natural gas pipeline project off the ground. On Saturday, she repeated her belief that change was inevitable and that Alaska needed to be part of the solution.

“Our congressional delegation, no doubt, will have to realize that,” Palin said. “We can either put our heads in the sand and ignore the reforms that are coming or we can be proactive and get Alaska in a position to be more productive, contributing more and become less reliant on the federal government.”

Palin, 44, said the disagreements she’s had with Young, 74, and Stevens, 84, may have to do with the difference between them in age.

“Maybe it’s generational,” she said. “Maybe it’s a difference in how we perceive how parties should be acting and interacting with constituents. There’s some fundamental differences there, but I think that overall with where we want to see the state of Alaska head, we’re aligned.”

Palin described her relationship with the delegation as “respectful.”

“I do respect their positions and I respect their seniority,” she said. “I respect all that they have contributed to the state of Alaska.”

She added: “I also recognize that Alaskans, as we’re seeing on a national level, are desiring some change, some progress.”

Palin declined to say whether she would endorse Stevens or Young, both Republicans, in their re-election bids.

“I have no idea what that field is even going to look like at this point,” she said. “We still hear rumors all the time of folks who may be jumping in there, so I’m not going to commit to support or oppose anybody at this point.”

Palin said she would work with whomever is elected to the state’s two contested congressional seats, regardless of party affiliation.

“The nice thing about Alaska is that we are small enough population-wise where we all seem to know one another and can all get along and agree on those things Alaska needs to progress, I believe,” she said. “In that context, working with Democrats, if they were to replace the Republican delegation, as CEO of the state, certainly I would be working with them.”

All three members of the state’s Republican congressional delegation, including Sen. Lisa Murkowski, have spoken out against Palin’s Alaska Gasline Inducement Act and the process she’s followed on the gas line project. Palin said she’s been mystified by the criticism. “I really think there is some information that they still are not receiving in terms of the entire content of AGIA,” Palin said.

In January, the administration selected TransCanada as the lone qualified applicant to build the pipeline. The delegation, meanwhile, have continue to press Palin to negotiate fiscal terms for gas production with Exxon Mobil, BP and ConocoPhillips – a process Palin has described as a dead-end.

“As we keep preaching – and I would think Alaskans may be getting tired of hearing the preaching on this – but for our delegation’s sake, we have to keep repeating that this is an open, transparent, competitive process that has, so far, produced an application that is conforming to the needs of Alaska,” Palin said.

The administration is collecting public comment on the TransCanada proposal through March 6, and plans to submit it to the Legislature for final approval in May.

“We believe that this is going to progress this gas line project — I believe it already has — faster and further than any other process in all these decades of hoping for a gas line in Alaska,” she said.

Palin will meet later this week with U.S. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne. She hopes Kempthorne will be able to provide some hint on which direction the Bush administration is leaning on listing the polar bear on the endangered species list.

“My ideal is not having to see the polar bear listed as threatened until we have absolute sound science that can prove that that listing is the most appropriate to take care of issues with climate change that impact the habitat of the polar bear,” she said. “If they do decide to list, then we start working on mitigation.”

In all likelihood, though, Palin said, the polar bear will probably be listed as threatened.

“Based on what we are hearing, I don’t have any reason to believe that they would not list at this point,” she said.

Palin will also attend a rally on Tuesday in support of the victims of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. The U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on Wednesday in the fight over punitive damages related to the spill.

“What we are ready for is some closure on this issue and then to deal with the ramifications one way or another,” Palin said about the ongoing litigation. “This seems to be a case of justice delayed being justice denied. Nineteen years after this spill, the ongoing tragedy is that there has not been this closure.”