the former Republican vice presidential candidate who helped popularize
“drill, baby, drill” as a slogan, suggested Sunday that President
Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” the former
governor said she remained a “big supporter” of oil drilling but
believed “these oil companies have got to be held accountable.”
Pointing to what she termed the
complexity and the potential tragedy that we are seeing here in the
Gibbs, on
“I’m almost sure that the oil companies don’t
consider the Obama administration a huge ally,” Gibbs said. “We
proposed a windfall profits tax when they jacked their oil prices up to
charge more for gasoline.”
Gibbs said, “My suggestion to
The oil and gas industry donated
One month after the BP rig exploded and sank in the
Gulf, thousands of barrels of oil a day continue spilling as experts
struggle to devise a way to cap the break and contain the crude. A live
webcam shows the oil spewing underwater in graphic detail.
Criticism has been mounting over the inability of the
Gibbs said the government “is doing everything humanly and technologically possible to plug the hole.”
“Every bit of government has been activated,” Gibbs
said. “The president has told the team to spare nothing in trying to
cap this well.”
Asked whether there would be a criminal investigation of the spill, Gibbs said
Republicans popularized “drill, baby, drill” as a
campaign slogan in 2008 as gasoline prices were on the rise and
Democrats promoted alternative energy sources. The slogan gained
prominence during the
Palin said Sunday that she remained “a strong
supporter of domestic energy supplies being extracted,” and she said
onshore drilling can be safer than in ocean waters.
“Maybe this is a lesson too for those who oppose
safe, domestic supplies being extracted on our shores and on the land,”
she said, citing regions in
Palin has been a longtime advocate of drilling in the
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