Sarah Palin Interview August 29, 2008 with CNBC's Maria Bartiromo - Video and Text

Palin discusses Joe Biden, ANWR, drilling, oil and jobs and energy independence.


Transcript from CNBC


Bartiromo: Welcome back to a special edition of "The Closing Bell."

Sarah Palin kept a low profile while Governor of Alaska,
and few if any placed her at the top of the list of potential running mates for Senator John McCain.
All that changed today.



This week I traveled to Alaska and I interviewed Sarah Palin in an exclusive interview for CNBC.
Not about the presidential race only but her state's role in the country's energy debate.
And I asked her if John McCain contacted her.

Palin: Economically speaking, though, it's about 20% of the U.S. Domestic supply is
-- of energy is produced up on the North Slope.
So very, very significant economically. Physically, thankfully, tiny little footprint.

Bartiromo: So you're saying it's a tiny little footprint, actually the operations in Prudo Bay,
but people think of it as so expansive and so massive that it's going to have a material effect
if in fact we were to see drilling there on the wildlife and on the community.

Palin: Well,

ANWR at that point it's about 2,000 acres that is being asked to be looked at
and to be explored and to be produced. 2,000 acres out of 20 million acres.
That footprint, it's about the size of LAX.

Or one of the larger airports across the nation.
And that should allow some perspective there also.
But you know, no one, I think, but

Alaskans care more about our wildlife, about our clean water,
our clean air, the pristine environment that we are blessed to live in and get to breathe in every single day.

No one but Alaskans will care more to make sure that we are preserving that pristine environment that is ANWR,
the coastal plain, Prudo Bay, Alaska as a whole.
And when you ask Alaskans do you agree to allow drilling to take place on the North Slope,
specifically here we're talking about ANWR, do you want to see that happen?
And with Alaskans' love and care for our environment and our lands and our wildlife,
Alaskans are saying yes because we believe that it can be done safely, prudently,
and it had better be done ethically also. Yes, we want to see that drilling.
So hopefully the rest of America can understand that also.


You go door to door and ask Alaskans if we are ready and willing to produce more and contribute more to the U.S.
And they're going to tell you yes.



Bartiromo: President Bush tried this a number of times under his watch.
Why is it we have been unable toget this done?

Palin:

I think there's been a lot of misconceptions and misperceptions about what
ANWR is all about and up on the North Slope what the environment actually is up there.

You see pictures, you see visuals from the naysayers, the critics of the idea of opening ANWR,
and the pictures that they're showing are mountains and -- polar bears.

Bartiromo: Polar bears.


Palin: Lots of different wildlife.


They'll show moose in a stream with mountains in the background.
That's not ANWR.



And as your people go up there also and actually get to see for themselves
-- and we've had a lot of congressmen and congresswomen come up here this summer even to see for themselves
what actually is ANWR,
what would be touched here in terms of lands and wildlife,
then they see that those visuals that have been showed America for all these years are inaccurate.



Those are not the pictures of ANWR.
There aren't mountains up there, for instance.



So I think there's a lot of misperception out there about what the plain actually looks like.
And the visuals are very important to Americans.
I do think, though, that Americans are recognizing more and more it's evidenced in the pressure
they're putting on congress at this point, the constituents putting on congress,
more and more Americans are recognizing it is time to ramp up American supply of energy,


especially we're a nation at war,
a lot of the issues that are so adversely affecting America are based on energy supplies
as we're relying on foreign sources of energy to feed our hungry markets,
more and more Americans are recognizing your sister state up in the Arctic,
Alaska has these supplies.
We have trillions of cubic feet of clean natural gas.
We have billions of barrels of oil still sitting underground, in a sense being warehoused.
It's time to unlock these reserves and allow competitors to come in and compete for the right
to tap those resources and start flowing that energy into the domestic markets that are so
hungry so that we can become less reliant on foreign sources of energy.



As more Americans recognize that, more Americans, I believe, are choosing to educate themselves on what
ANWR is really all about.

Bariromo: For sure. And I guess this year there was a price and once there was a price that was actually reached it was
-- people got it.


Palin: Yeah. I believe so too.


Bartiromo: Let me get your thoughts on really the consequences.
What then are the major consequences of drilling in ANWR?
I was reading a piece earlier that said, look, it will impact the breeding of caribou,
the breeding of polar bears. Give me your sense. What are the consequences?


Palin:

Well, let's look at lessons learned over the last 30 years when the TransAlaska oil pipeline
was finally allowed to be built and there were the threats then and the fears that the caribou herds
would diminish and die off.
No, the caribou herds are actually thriving. They're flourishing.
There have not been the adverse impacts on the caribou herds.
So we anticipate the same thing as we tap more energy supplies up on the North Slope in ANWR and as
we build a natural gas pipeline also that's under way at this point.
When you consider the naysayers, the fear mongers, 30 years ago before the TransAlaska oil pipeline was built
-- and remember, that pipeline has supplied 15 billion barrels of oil into our domestic supplies here in America.




And by the way, Biden, Joe Biden was one who voted against that TransAlaska oil pipeline 30 years ago.
He was fearful of allowing ramped up domestic supplies of foreign energy even then.
So of course I fear that if he's of the same mind today we're in a world of hurt there.



No. The environment will continue to be protected. Our wildlife will continue to thrive and to prosper up there.
And we're going to make sure that we have the stringent and safe oversight that is necessary and that
will allow the population of this wildlife and the pristineness of the area to continue.

Palin: Here in Alaska oil production is so significant.
About 85% to 90% of our entire state budget is based on that barrel of oil and the price that it drives,
and our state revenue is, again, so reliant on the price of a barrel of oil.
For such a great part also Alaskan jobs are contingent upon very aggressive production of oil
and natural gas up here in alaska. So --


Bartiromo: And probably the lower 48 states. It's a ripple effect.

Palin: Absolutely. And also the ripple effect, may as well talk about this also, is
our belief too that as more domestic supplies of alaskan energy flow into the hungry markets,
naturally we believe the price of energy will diminish also.
It will decrease, and that will be good for the economy as a whole.
But very, very important to the entire U.S. economy.
Specifically here in Alaska, though. My goodness. It is what drives our economy.

Bartiromo: So how important are the oil and gas industries? Businesses to Alaskans.

Palin: Very, very important. Conoco Phillips, Exxon, BP, you know,
we butt heads quite a bit when it comes to the sovereignty here of our state.
Alaska is set up unlike any other state in the nation where our Statehood Compact Act
and our state constitution lays out for us who owns the resources and, unlike other states,
it's Alaskans, the residents who live here who own the resources underground.
So as they're tapped, as they'reproduced,
Alaskans share in the wealth that's derived from the production of these resources.
So the oil industry, they're our partners here.
They have the lease is the right to develop the resources but Alaskans own the resources.
So that naturally creates some tension in who owns what and who can control what.
But our position of strength in my administration we know is our state constitution that,
again, lays out for us who actually owns the resources.
That's the Alaskan residents.
And I will do all what i can to protect the Alaskan residents as we develop.
But at the same time we recognize that the big oil industry that is here,
they do have the rights and have had the right for many years now to develop those resources for us and with us.

Bartiromo: How will you do that? How will you protect Alaskans' homes, their environment?
What are you thinking as we approach this debate where on the one side people say drill, drill, drill,
on the other side people are saying look, we need to keep this area pristine?

Palin:

We need to drill, drill, drill.



Otherwise, I cannot believe a domestic solution is any part of a national energy policy if they're
not going to let Alaskans drill on our own lands and on Federal lands within our own state.



And if a domestic solution isn't part of a national energy plan, then our nation is in a world of hurt,
we're going to continue to be reliant on foreign dangerous regimes to feed our hungry markets.




I find it ironic and I find it nonsensical that here we sent Secretary Bodman,
we even send our own President overseas to negotiate with the Saudis to ask the Saudis to ramp up
oil production for us in America when, again, absolute nonsense because Alaska has those resources
already and we should be tapping these American supplies before we go to the Saudis and ask them to do so.



So very significant here what is going on.
And I think our nation is at a cross-roads also.
We'd either better be making decisions to allow this American supply of energy to be tapped or
we're going to become more and more beholden to these foreign regimes.
And again, our nation's going to be in a world of hurt when you talk about national security,
when you talk about ever reaching potential toward energy independence,
if we cannot implement a domestic solution for this national energy policy.
And we have lacked a national energy policy also.
We have not had a plan. Alaska should be a leader in this plan because we have the conventional,
the non-renewable supplies, the petroleum.
We have them up here.



Again, the hundreds of trillions of cubic feet of clean natural gas,
the buildings of barrels of oil. We also have the renewables also.
We have the largest tides on the continent, we have the geothermal, we have the winds.


We have all these alternative renewable source that's also can be tapped into as we work collectively
and comprehensively on an energy plan.

Palin: We need to be doing everything, and people need to be realistic also.



And this is also what kind of scares me about Biden and Obama also,
is it seems to be almost a naive notion of theirs that we can automatically just jump right
into a renewable supply of energy to feed hungry markets across our nation when these renewables
are not yet proven to be economic nor reliable.
We're going to be in a transition period for quite some time where we're going to have to continue
to be reliant on conventional sources of energy as we're working on the renewables,
and we certainly have to head in that direction also.
But it's got to be doing everything, everything that we can to allow the domestic supplies,
renewable and non-renewable, to be tapped, solutions plugged in from both those ends,
and not just skip the oil and the gas development and the coal development also that we have to have as part
of a comprehensive plan.
It's naive to think we can go right to renewables and think that's ever going to work for our nation today at this time.



Bartiromo: And you can catch more of my exclusive interview with Sarah Palin on "The Wall Street Journal Report"
this weekend. We did an hour-long interview.
In my column in "BusinessWeek" magazine for a second interview which I conducted on Wednesday.
My thanks to Governor Sarah Palin as well as the Vice Presidential candidate for John McCain.
And please join us for our special one-hour presentation, "The Hunt for Black Gold" premiering Wednesday, September 24th.
"The Hunt for Black Gold" the reason I first went to Alaska to talk to Sarah Palin about oil in Alaska
and where the oil is in this country. "The Hunt for Black Gold" airing Wednesday, September 24th.

Bartiromo: Well, you just heard part of my interview with Sarah Palin the Governor of Alaska,
and John McCain's running mate to be Vice President.
I went to Alaska to ask her about energy, but I also asked her whether John McCain contacted her to be the VP.
Listen to this.


Palin:

My son, his Stryker Brigade -- he's in the U.S. Army, he's 19 years old.
He's a kid. He's a good American kid serving in the Army for the right reasons.
His Stryker Brigade will be deployed September 11th.
That's coming up here shortly.
And I think, again, if we're fighting at all over foreign supplies of energy when domestically
again right here in Alaska we have the energy supplies that could as we progress with more
developments replace some of those supplies we better not be at war over this cause
I am a Mom and my Son is going over to Iraq and I want to make sure that we have a plan there.



Bartiromo: Palin has five children as you just heard one of those children is going to Iraq on September 11th
her youngest has Down Syndrome and that's why she is also expected to talk about pro-life
when she speaks next week at the convention.
Here's what she said when I asked her if John McCain asked her to be VP.
She said they have spoken a number of times. The entire interview can be seen on cnbc.com.