Thank You Sarah Palin: The Undefeated; And Some Republicans and Alaska Democrats

I would like to take this time and thank Sarah Palin; The Undefeated and some Alaska Republicans and all of the Alaska Democrats in the Alaska legislature.

The legislation called ACES is having a booming effect on the business climate in Alaska and the United States.

Alaska has moved from 50^th (among the 57 Obama United States) to 49^th when it comes to states that promote a healthy business climate.

I guess you could attribute the rise to 49th with Sarah Palin leaving and Sean Parnell taking over, but he still has to deal with a bunch of idiots in the legislature.

Some may point to Alaska’s economy is 3^rd but that is because the government spends billions of dollars to sustain it.

Think of it like Obama’s federal stimulus plan on steroids.

And what about the workforce?

It is ranked 48^th and that hire Alaskan plan a.k.a Project Labor Agreement Palin and her union brothers and sisters partied over, it was about bringing up union workers from the Lower 48 because there is not enough skilled labor in Alaska.

So while the oil companies are drilling a gazillion wells in North Dakota, Texas and every other place except Alaska, I finally figured out what Sarah Palin The Undefeated meant when she said Drill Baby Drill and Drill Here, Drill Now.

When she secretly had her eye on the V.P. slot, she had it all planned out; help Mr. Anti-ANWR McCain become president and come up with some asinine tax plan that would drive oil development to other parts of the world.

And one more thing: screw those American “Big Oil” companies in Alaska - while nationalized “Big Oil” companies like Russia’s Gazprom chants Drill Cuba Drill and China’s Sinopec chants Drill Canada Drill , they both snicker at American “Big Oil” 6.2% profits.

I can imagine old Vladimir Putin standing at the shore of Big Diomede waving to Sarah Palin on Little Diomede, while Putin’s oligarch buddies at Gazprom nudge each other as they laugh at how they sand-bagged Wally Hickel when he went to visit Russia and Hickel tried to tell the Russians how to develop their resources.

Alaska was a model don’t you know…

Since Gazprom is a nationalized company, the Russian government can tax the hell out of Gazprom and pass the tax increase on to the market or consumers in the U.K..

And the tax increases, they are usually done through promises made during an upcoming election:

Russia relies on oil and gas for most of its budget revenue. “First of all, in Russia if we want to increase taxes, we are thinking about all and gas business,” Konstantin Simonov, the General Director of the National Energy Security Fund in Moscow, told New Europe on 15 June.

Gas production in Russia is subject to much lower rates of extraction tax than crude oil production. “Taxes on oil companies are higher than gas companies and oil companies are usually asking for decreasing of taxes because, according to their position, there is no money for new investment. That is why in this case Minister of Finance is proposing idea to think of gas companies,” Simonov said.

Simonov said that Kudrin expects an increase in state expenditures due to the upcoming elections and wants to increase taxes because there is not enough money in the state budget. The proposals to increase gas taxes are still under discussion. So far, Gazprom, with the support of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, has been able to avoid any increases in the rate between 2006 and 2010. But now, due to the upcoming elections, Putin may have no choice but agree to raise mining taxes on the gas industry, Simonov said.

Gazprom has warned that an increase in its tax burden would discourage new output. Gazprom, which has seen a decline in Brownfield production, has said that there has been no serious investment in Greenfields for a long time. The Russian company needs cash to develop its Bovanenkovo field, to construct a pipeline system from Bovanenkovo to Ukhta, and to develop other Yamal projects. Next year, Gazprom plans to increase its investment program. The annual shareholder meeting of Gazprom will be on 30 June. Kudrin said that the Finance Ministry doesn’t plan to raise next year’s rates for independent gas producers, such as OAO Novatek. Next year, Novatek and other independent producers will pay 251 rubles (€6.28) per 1000 cubic meters and only slightly more, 265 rubles, (€6.63) in 2013.

It seems Mr. Putin wants another try at being at the forefront instead of the guy who pulls Medvedev’s strings.

Once he gets elected, he will have to lower the rates.

That is because the free-market principles dictate this; principles that Palin likes to point to but are contrary to her actions taken when she took the helm of Alaska’s economy and implemented and signed ACES.

But there was an election and bad advice was followed.

Now the brilliant bunch in the Alaska legislature want to spend over $8 billion on a “bullet” pipeline to bring natural gas to a state where it was second to Puerto Rico with the highest insured unemployment rate; it spends over $10 billion on a state budget with a population of 698,473 and ignores the fact that coal methane gas can be extracted from coal deposits and be brought to market at the fraction of the cost.

Moreover, what about Alaska’s unemployment? It seems Russia and Alaska have a lot in common when it comes to taxing oil companies and government spending to keep unemployment figures from tanking.

May figures – seasonally adjusted 7.4%

Alaska’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May was 7.4 percent, up slightly from April’s unchanged rate of 7.3%. the comparable national rate in May was 9.1 percent, up from the revised rate of 9.0 percent in April.

The trend in unemployment has been up since April and that is an Obama trend that is directly related to a tax policy set by Palin and the Alaska legislature.

Like I said before: ACES would drive Alaska to become a Really Big Detroit and it is starting.

So I would like to say Thanks Sarah Palin, I hope you enjoy your undefeated status.

BTW, Putin is undefeated too.