Quick Fact: Palin repeats falsehood that Alaska produces "20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy"

http://mediamatters.org/items/201002070018 During an interview with Fox News Sunday host Chris Wallace, Fox News contributor Sarah Palin falsely claimed that "20 percent of the US domestic supply of energy" comes from Alaska. In fact, according to the most recent data available from the Energy Information Administration, Alaska accounts for no more than 2.9 percent of total domestic energy production. From the February 7 edition of Fox News Sunday: CHRIS WALLACE (HOST): Would you say you're more knowledgeable about domestic and foreign affairs now than you were two years ago? PALIN: Well, I would hope so. Yes, I am. Two years ago, my engagement was on the state of Alaska, largest, most diverse state in the union. 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy coming from our state, desiring to and working towards ramping up that domestic energy production. That was my focus and now of course my focus has been enlarged. So I sure as heck better be more astute on these current events, national issues than I was two years ago. Fact: In 2005, Alaska produced only 3.5 percent of U.S. domestic energy production Responding to Palin's September 2008 statement that Alaska "produces nearly 20 percent of the U.S. domestic supply of energy," FactCheck.org wrote: It's simply untrue that Alaska produces anything close to 20 percent of the U.S. "energy supply," a term that is generally defined as energy consumed. That category includes power produced in the U.S. by nuclear, coal, hydroelectric dams and other means - as well as all the oil imported into the country. Palin would have been correct to say that Alaska produces just over 14 percent of all the oil produced in the U.S., leaving out imports and leaving out other forms of power. According to the federal government's Energy Information Administration, Alaskan wells produced 263.6 million barrels of oil in 2007, or 14.3 percent of the total U.S. production of 1.8 billion barrels. But Alaskan production accounts for only 4.8 percent of all the crude oil and petroleum products supplied to the U.S. in 2007, counting both domestic production and imports from other nations. According to EIA, the total supply was just over 5.5 billion barrels in 2007. Furthermore, Palin said "energy," not "oil," so she was actually much further off the mark. According to EIA, Alaska actually produced 2,417.1 trillion BTUs [British Thermal Units] of energy in 2005, the last year for which full state numbers are available. That's equal to just 3.5 percent of the country's domestic energy production. And according to EIA analyst Paul Hess, that would calculate to only "2.4 percent of the 100,368.6 trillion BTUs the U.S. consumes." Palin didn't make clear whether she was talking about Alaska's share of all the energy produced in the U.S. or all the energy consumed here. Either way, she was wrong. Fact: As of 2007, Alaska's share of U.S. energy production declined to 2.9 percent According to the Energy Information Administration, the state of Alaska produced 2,052 trillion BTUs of energy in 2007, 2.9 percent of total U.S. production. Further, the EIA calculated that Alaska ranked 11th in the country in total energy production. Contact: FOX Broadcasting Company askfox@foxinc.com http://twitter.com/FoxBroadCasting Contact: Fox News Channel FOX News Channel 1-888-369-4762 1211 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10036 http://twitter.com/foxnews Contact: FOX News Sunday Fox News Sunday http://twitter.com/foxnewssunday

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