Sarah Palin and the oil companies
From someone I know at one of the big oil companies (I actually got this very shortly after the pick was announced, before the media frenzy):
Sarah Palin?! Ugh ugh ugh. She has quite a reputation in the oil industry! Not as being a "tough and crafty negotiator" as she probably thinks she is, but just as being an unpredictable, difficult, and frankly insane negotiator.
The Norwegians will screw you down and get every last drop of money out of you that they can, but they abide by their agreements and are just looking out for getting the most money they can out of their resource. Everyone has a grudging great respect for them.
The Russians will just look for any opportunity to screw you.... but they are doing it out of personal interests. If you can figure out which people are calling the shots on behalf of whom, then you might, perhaps, be able to survive.
The Alaskans under their current administration have a reputation for just being insane. They will arbitrarily change the rules in unpredictable ways that don't appear to benefit ANYONE. They will just as happily screw themselves as the oil industry, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to their decisions. Different companies have tried different strategies trying to understand the inscrutable Alaskans (including bribing their senior Senator, Ted Stevens), but nothing really works. They're just insane.
I actually heard someone say the other day that it was easier to work with the Venezuelans than the Alaskans.
Note how companies with resources on the north slope finally got so fed up with dealing with the Alaskan gov't that they walked away from enormous tax breaks the state was offering and have started planning their own gas pipeline to get stranded Alaskan gas connected into the Canadian gas pipeline network, from whence it can get to the lower 48. Meanwhile the Alaskan gov't is still proceeding with its own pipeline plans as well. There's not enough gas to support two pipelines so will be interesting to see what happens out of that.
Given McCain's age his choice of VP was very important. I'd much rather have someone I disagreed with than someone I feared was insane. This is someone who will have their finger on the button! I'll have to find out more about Palin now but, ugh, from what I know of her through the oil industry she's generally thought of as downright scary.
Not sure how typical an "undecided" I am but I think Obama just really helped his chances of getting elected...
Sarah Palin?! Ugh ugh ugh. She has quite a reputation in the oil industry! Not as being a "tough and crafty negotiator" as she probably thinks she is, but just as being an unpredictable, difficult, and frankly insane negotiator.
The Norwegians will screw you down and get every last drop of money out of you that they can, but they abide by their agreements and are just looking out for getting the most money they can out of their resource. Everyone has a grudging great respect for them.
The Russians will just look for any opportunity to screw you.... but they are doing it out of personal interests. If you can figure out which people are calling the shots on behalf of whom, then you might, perhaps, be able to survive.
The Alaskans under their current administration have a reputation for just being insane. They will arbitrarily change the rules in unpredictable ways that don't appear to benefit ANYONE. They will just as happily screw themselves as the oil industry, and there seems to be no rhyme or reason to their decisions. Different companies have tried different strategies trying to understand the inscrutable Alaskans (including bribing their senior Senator, Ted Stevens), but nothing really works. They're just insane.
I actually heard someone say the other day that it was easier to work with the Venezuelans than the Alaskans.
Note how companies with resources on the north slope finally got so fed up with dealing with the Alaskan gov't that they walked away from enormous tax breaks the state was offering and have started planning their own gas pipeline to get stranded Alaskan gas connected into the Canadian gas pipeline network, from whence it can get to the lower 48. Meanwhile the Alaskan gov't is still proceeding with its own pipeline plans as well. There's not enough gas to support two pipelines so will be interesting to see what happens out of that.
Given McCain's age his choice of VP was very important. I'd much rather have someone I disagreed with than someone I feared was insane. This is someone who will have their finger on the button! I'll have to find out more about Palin now but, ugh, from what I know of her through the oil industry she's generally thought of as downright scary.
Not sure how typical an "undecided" I am but I think Obama just really helped his chances of getting elected...