Sarah Palin slams cap and trade. Also.

Fresh from her stunning performance in her own personal IQuitarod [2] over the 4th of July weekend, soon to be Alaska ex-governor Sarah Palin [3] has decided to take on yet another challenge for which she's utterly unqualified [4]: writing an op-ed [5] about energy and climate change for the Washington Post.

Not that you'll even find the words "climate change" or "global warming" anywhere in the op-ed, even though those words are precisely the reason for the "cap" in "cap-and-trade." Gov. Palin's diatribe against the climate bills working their way through Congress is not only full of distortions and myopic "solutions" to our energy crisis--though there's plenty of that. It's also firmly rooted in another era in which the planet isn't warming, solar and wind and other renewables don't exist, and all we have to do is tap the next well or dig the next mine and everything will be OK. Here's a sample:

We must move in a new direction. We are ripe for economic growth and energy independence if we responsibly tap the resources that God created right underfoot on American soil. Just as important, we have more desire and ability to protect the environment than any foreign nation from which we purchase energy today.

Translation: Drill, Baby, Drill! You won't find the words "solar" or "renewable" anywhere in this op-ed. I did find the word "wind," but it was for a Google Ad for a wind energy career training program. Apparently a computer algorithm has a better understanding of America's energy situation than the Governor of Alaska.

You won't find any mention of energy efficiency or conservation, either. But then again, we're talking about a governor who rejected $29 million in stimulus money for energy conservation [6] for the coldest state in the Union. Thankfully for Alaskans, all their state legislators have decided to keep their jobs and may even come back into session to override her veto [7].

Palin's argument against climate legislation boils down to two points: it will kill jobs and will cost too much. Oh, I suppose I could spend a lot of time digging up facts to refute these points, such as NRDC's analysis of the ACES bill [8] that shows clean energy investments would create 1.7 millions jobs [9] (PDF), or that consumers will save an average of $5.99 in their electricity bills [10] (PDF). But there's an even more powerful reason to simply ignore Sarah Palin's screed against strong clean energy and climate legislation.

It was written by Sarah Palin.