Skip to Content
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Log In
Election 2008

Palin to RNC: It’s Drill or “Do Nothing at All”

If there was any question as to where a John McCain-Sarah Palin White House would stand on transportation, the prospective VP's speech to the Republican National Convention left little room for doubt. Here's Palin from last night, via 9_4_08_palin.jpgGrist:

"Our opponents say, again and again, that drilling will not solve allof America's energy problems -- as if we all didn't know that already.But the fact that drilling won't solve every problem is no excuse to donothing at all. Starting in January, in a McCain-Palin administration, we're going tolay more pipelines and build more nuclear plants and create jobs withclean coal and move forward on solar, wind, geothermal, and otheralternative sources."

Grist notes that Palin, um, fudged a little in her refutation of Alaska's "Bridge to Nowhere." Despite her claim that as governor she turned down federal funds for the bridge, Palin once supported the much-maligned project, and Alaska is using the earmarks intended for it to build a road to the proposed bridge site.

Though Palin scored millions in hated "pork" for bus and rail projects, her tenure as mayor of Wasilla apparently did not bring about much in the way of livable streets improvements.

Writes Charles Wohlforth in The New Republic:

I had written a Frommer's travel guidebook about Alaska (I live in Anchorageand was on the Municipal Assembly here at the time). In the book, I franklydescribed Wasilla as a place to skip, "the worst kind of suburban sprawl ofhighway-fronting shopping malls and gravel lots."

Wasilla boosters were furious and a local media debate erupted.A good many people came in on my side: Wasilla, with a complete lack of communityplanning, is truly Alaska'sleast attractive town.

Streetsblogger Doc Barnett concurs:

Frommer's description of Wasilla is accurate. Its residents (includingsome of my family) live there to get away from all the big-cityproblems of multicultural Anchorage. No, seriously. And then they tryto figure out how shorten driving times around the gigantic naturalfeature (Cook Inlet) they have decided to put between themselves andtheir jobs (if any).

In a collection of local news headlines tracking Palin's career, Politico lists a story citing her support for a Wasilla bill to outlaw non-motorized vehicles -- "skateboards, in-line skates, bicycles, scooters" -- on public or private property where signage prohibited their use, under penalty of fines and/or confiscation.

Photo from Wasilla, AK via Mudflats

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

SGV Connect 132: A Fond Farewell to Melanie Curry

This week’s SGV Connect Podcast features the entire Streetsblog in California team saying goodbye to the Streetsblog California editor, Melanie Curry, as she heads into retirement.

January 16, 2025

Where Metro and Caltrans Are Widening L.A. Freeways, Sabotaging the Climate, Fanning the Flames

Climate disruption is here. Right now. It's past time that Southern California transportation heavyweights - Metro and Caltrans - stop making the situation worse

January 16, 2025

Streetsblog California Editor Melanie Curry Signs Off

Pat me on the head and shoo me out the door, there's work to be done

January 15, 2025
See all posts