SARAH, SARAH

Posted at 8:36 p.m. ET

This is a wonderful piece from the Anchorage Daily News and confirms what many of us have thought - that Sarah Palin is actually a smart lady who's done some very good things, but is being savaged by the liberal press and restricted by the McCain campaign.

Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin has let her energy platform be dumbed down to "drill, baby, drill," but her actual record on energy is much more responsible, balanced and substantial.

• She worked with lawmakers and used her popularity to vastly increase Alaska's take-home share of its oil wealth, providing the state with billions of dollars in budget surplus with an oil tax that increased both the base rate and captured progressively more at higher oil prices.

• She encouraged new investment and exploration with generous, intelligent tax credits.

• She kick-started investment in a natural gas pipeline -- both through her own Alaska Gasline Inducement Act and the response by North Slope producers BP Alaska and Conoco Phillips, who pledge to spend up to $600 million on their own project.

• She maintained her predecessor's hard- line stance with Exxon/Mobil over development of the Point Thomson gas reserves, ultimately deciding to take the leases back rather the trust Exxon to make good on its umpteenth promise to produce. That prompted Exxon to go to court. That also prompted Exxon to promise $1.3 billion of work on Point Thomson.

• She proposed a Renewable Energy Fund that lawmakers last session approved for $250 million over five years. This is money to bankroll wind, geothermal, tidal and other forms of renewable energy.

• She supported lawmakers' work on home energy conservation, including $200 million for the Weatherization Program that increased the qualifying income limits for individuals and families and $100 million for the Home Energy Rebate Program, which provides up to $10,000 per household for energy efficiency improvements.

Whether you agree or disagree with these steps, the woman is an intelligent, engaged executive.  And note this:

Gov. Palin can't claim sole credit for any of this...

...But Gov. Palin did parlay her unprecedented popularity and those favorable circumstances to give Alaska something closer to a state energy policy than anything the United States has by way of a national policy.

Glad someone said it.  But you won't read it in the mainstream media.  Try to go through the rest of the piece, which provides the details, and concludes:

Sarah Palin's got a solid energy record in Alaska. National voters need to hear more than "drill, baby, drill."

Agreed.

October 12, 2008.