False Tweet Alert: Gov. Sarah Palin

Palin Claims Alaska Can Reduce America's Reliance On Foreign Oil

Palin Tweet: "Alaska's role is to provide domestic energy leading to less reliance on foreign sources..." [Twitter, 5/27/09]

REALITY: Drilling In Alaska "Would Only Slightly Reduce America's Dependence On Imports." In 2004, the Associated Press reported: "Opening an Alaska wildlife refuge to oil development would only slightly reduce America's dependence on imports and would lower oil prices by less than 50 cents a barrel, according to an analysis released Tuesday by the Energy Department. The report, issued by the Energy Information Administration, or EIA, said that if Congress gave the go-ahead to pump oil from Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the crude could begin flowing by 2013 and reach a peak of 876,000 barrels a day by 2025. But even at peak production, the EIA analysis said, the United States would still have to import two-thirds of its oil, as opposed to an expected 70 percent if the refuge's oil remained off the market. [Associated Press, 3/16/04; emphasis added]

• In Addition, Oil Development In ANWR Would Have Virtually No Impact On The Price Of Oil. In 2008, Politico noted, "at its peak capacity in 2025, ANWR would produce 1 million barrels of oil a day, only reducing world oil prices around 30 cents to 50 cents a barrel...the 2004 report linked above is based on a $27 a barrel cost of oil. Today oil is going for [more than $60 a barrel]. The Energy Department report, which was published during the last vigorous ANWR debate in 2004, notes that oil imports might be reduced by a mere 4 percent, so the country would be importing 66 percent of its oil from foreign countries instead of 70 percent. And none of this would happen until 2025." [Politico, 4/29/08; emphasis added]