Politifact: Palin's claim of job losses from climate change bill is "mostly true"

Earlier this week we noted that Alaska's soon-to-be-ex-Gov. Sarah Palin penned an op-ed column blasting the Obama Administration for supporting the Waxman-Markey bill to combat climate change and instead touting offshore drilling as the solution.

"I am deeply concerned about President Obama's cap-and-trade energy plan, and I believe it is an enormous threat to our economy," Palin wrote. "It would undermine our recovery over the short term and would inflict permanent damage."

In fact, she wrote, "job losses are so certain under this new cap-and-tax plan that it includes a provision accommodating newly unemployed workers from the resulting dried-up energy sector, to the tune of $4.2 billion over eight years. So much for creating jobs."

Now our colleagues at the Pulitzer-winning Politifact operation have examined Palin's claim and ruled it: "Mostly True."

"She's correct that there is a program in the bill that would help displaced workers, but she paints a narrow view of how the bill will affect employment," writes Poltifact reporter Catherine Richert. "Yes, some workers will be displaced and need to be retrained, but some experts are projecting growth and new jobs in industries that benefit from the new policy. We rate her claim Mostly True."

--Craig Pittman