A search of Google reveals that the term "petrostate" is a mechanism that turns oil money into political power--or, more precisely, control of the state's oil money into control of the state--in a self-perpetuating cycle.

Examples of a petrostate are Russia, Iran and Venezuela. In essence Mr. Klare is comparing Governor Sarah Palin to Venezuela's Hugo Chávez, which is a sick and foolish comparison. Sarah Palin is a governor, not a socialist dictator. The fact that Governor Palin was elected contradicts his whole thesis.

Further, Mr. Klare also fails to point out that the reason Alaska has such high federal subsides is because it has the highest ratio of Native Americans, who all receive government subsidies.

It is always easier to attack and find problems, then to give solutions or creative criticisms.

Mr. Klare's whole attack on Sarah Palin is his belief in Magical Power creation. There is currently no viable alternatives to oil, now or in the foreseeable future. Planes, ships and heavy industry cannot run on expensive and unreliable wind or solar. He claims to be worried about trees and the environment, yet he fails to point out that the land area needed to provide wind or solar is many times larger than the area needed for oil drilling in ANWAR, or even for a nuclear power plant, yet their power production capabilities are considerably less. Obviously, trees and the environment are only a concern when building oil and nuclear power plants.

Mr. Klare fails to mention that nuclear plants are built to last sixty years, but that windmills and solar are built to last only twenty years. The construction of solar cells creates more pollutants than will ever be saved by their use. Windmills need concrete bases that will release carbon and reduce any CO₂ saving by more than 75 percent; and that the Democrat elite have already stopped windmill construction in Hyannis Port because they don't want to see windmill outside their windows.

Finally, soar is limited to only certain areas, like the desert, and windmills to where there is wind, which means great distances from population areas, and even more destruction of land for power lines and mining of copper for the wires.

Klare criticizes Governor Palin, who said, "The conventional resources we have can fill the gap between now and when new technologies become economically competitive and don't require subsidies"--logical and true statement, with the fraud of global warming and the lie of peak oil.

Because Mr. Klare cannot name any alternative energy source that is currently economically competitive, nor can he offer any proof of anthropogenic climate change or peak oil, his creditability is nonexistent and this article is yet another unsubstantiated attack on a viable candidate.

Robert Exton

San Francisco, CA

Alaska is an American purchase. Taxpayers paid for the Alaskan Territory. Alaska exports oil to overseas countries. Sarah Palin tripled the tax on oil. Two-thirds of the Alaskan state revenue comes from oil taxes. Palin gave everybody in Alaska a $3,200 check from oil revenue. She got more federal per capita pork than any other state in the United States. Why the hell would she support alternative energy?

JAMES PINETTE

Caribou, ME