Palin: Obama Energy Plan a "Threat"

By ANDY BARR

Updated 2:00 AM EDT, Tue, Jul 14, 2009

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Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin warned in an op-ed Tuesday that President Barack Obama's energy plan represents an "enormous threat" to the American economy.

"I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy. It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage," Palin wrote in opinion piece for the Washington Post.

In her July 3 announcement that she intended to resign the governorship, Palin identified energy as one of a handful of national issues she intended to focus on once she was free of the constraints of office-holding.

While Palin held up her home state in the opinion piece as an example of a potential source of domestic energy production, the Republican governor's focus was national.

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"We must move in a new direction," she wrote, urging further exploration and use of domestic sources of energy. "We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil."

"Can America produce more of its own energy through strategic investments that protect the environment, revive our economy and secure our nation? Yes, we can," she continued. "Just not with Barack Obama's energy cap-and-tax plan."

Palin warned that there is "no shortage of threats to our economy," pointing to high unemployment and the growing national debt. She also noted that "the federal government's reach into the private sector is unprecedented."

The governor, however, accused the media of overlooking the serious economic threats facing the nation.

"Many in the national media would rather focus on the personality-driven political gossip of the day than on the gravity of these challenges," she wrote before launching into her argument against the president's energy plan. "So, at risk of disappointing the chattering class, let me make clear what is foremost on my mind and where my focus will be."