But the former GOP vice presidential candidate contends gas drilling will help curb rising temperatures
ANCHORAGE — Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin acknowledged Tuesday that global warming is harming her state but said stepped-up natural-gas production could mitigate its effects.
Palin spoke at a hearing before Interior Secretary Ken Salazar — the third of a series he is holding across the country to consider renewed oil and gas leasing on the Outer Continental Shelf.
The 2008 Republican nominee for vice president said relatively clean-burning natural gas can supplant dirtier fuels and slow the discharge of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
"We Alaskans are living with the changes that you are observing in Washington," she said. "The dramatic decreases in the extent of summer sea ice, increased coastal erosion, melting of permafrost, decrease in alpine glaciers and overall ecosystem changes are very real to us."
