Palin: 'Frack, baby, frack' a 'very important' policy

Half-term Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin on Tuesday blasted President Barack Obama as "ignorant" on energy policy, saying he wasn't doing enough to support "drill, baby, drill" and "frack, baby, frack."

During a Tuesday interview on Fox News, Palin avoided praising Obama's efforts to crack down on oil speculators, while saying saying he had not gone far enough to lower gas prices.

"Today's speech shows a lack of awareness of what the problem really is," she explained. "The solution has to be beyond a three-legged stool even, but a multifaceted solution, and that is what we proposed. Really, our president's naïve assault on American energy is going to doom our economy."

"You look at [his 'all-of-the-above' energy strategy], Barack Obama has called for more nuclear power and plants and that has begun," Fox News co-host Bob Beckel noted. "He's looked to alternative energy. Is the difference here now the amount of drilling that takes place? ... It gets down to drilling, doesn't it?"

"It's not just drilling though, Bob," Palin insisted. "Yeah, unleashing domestic energy production, aka 'drill, baby, drill' and 'frack, baby, frack' and allow pipelines to be built. All of that's very important. And mining our minerals. But when you look at what Barack Obama is actually doing with killing the Keystone pipeline -- the part that he has authority over, actually -- and his mission of bankrupting coal companies -- which leads to less electricity in the U.S. -- the things that he's actually doing, not just saying, what's he actually doing are burdening our American energy opportunities."

Fox News co-host Andrea Tantaros wondered if the president was really naïve or "just a liberal at heart."

"Is it politics or or is he just ignorant on this issue?" Tantaros asked.

"I think he's ignorant on the issue," Palin agreed. "There are so many things that contribute to his terrifyingly naïve and purposeful assault on our energy production."

The campaign slogan "drill, baby, drill" was first used during 2008 Republican National Convention by then-RNC Chairman Michael Steele. It became a standard refrain at Palin events throughout the election season. Tuesday marked the first time that Palin had adapted the slogan to support fracking -- or hydraulic fracturing -- a controversial process where a mix of water, sand and chemicals is injected into rock formations to release natural gas.

During a speech at Prince George’s Community College in Largo, Maryland last month, the president said that the U.S. should pursue an “all-of-the-above strategy” for developing new energy sources, including renewable energies like solar, wind and biofuels.

“Here’s the sad thing,” Obama explained to the friendly crowd. “Lately we’ve heard a lot of professional politicians — a lot of the folks who are running for a certain office, who shall go unnamed — they’ve been talking down new sources of energy. They dismiss wind power. They dismiss solar power. They make jokes about biofuels. They were against raising fuel standards. I guess they like gas guzzlers. They think that’s good for our future.”

“We’ve heard this kind of thinking before,” he added. “If some of these folks were around when Columbus set sail — they must have been founding members of the Flat-Earth Society. They would not have believed that the world was round.”

According to the United States Energy Information Administration, there has been a slight increase in domestic oil production since Obama took office.

Watch to the video below from Fox News' The Five, broadcast April 17, 2012.

(h/t: Media Matters)