Energy

Floor Speech

ENERGY -- (Senate - July 26, 2008)

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. I say to my friend, the Senator from Tennessee, in terms of what is out there, the options are enormous. You mentioned a few that are part of our legislation, whether it is the advancement of nuclear or coal to liquids or oil shale or offshore.

One of the issues we in Alaska believe in very strongly, and have great public support, not only in the State but growing across the country, is the recognition, up in an area called ANWR, a section of the North Slope that is very lucrative in terms of reserves, we have an opportunity to provide for this Nation more of a resource it desperately needs.

We need the permission of the Congress to go ahead and allow for that. So we kind of get nailed on the Republican side by our colleagues who say: Well, all you want to do is drill, drill, drill. And ANWR is one example of that.

I remind my colleagues--and perhaps many do not know--I do not know if you actually know as well in terms of what our legislation or what our amendment on opening ANWR would provide in terms of not only the resource, 10.5 billion barrels of oil is the mean estimate, but what we are looking to do then with our amendment is not take those revenues that come to the Federal Treasury, put them in the black hole of the Treasury, but we want to direct those toward the development of renewable resources, for solar power and wind. Eighteen billion dollars could be directed toward the advancements of those areas.

Carbon capture and storage technology, $30 billion could be directed in that area; $50 billion for cellulosic biofuels; $15 billion for smart grid electrical technology. What we are doing is, we are taking a resource that we desperately need, using those revenues to direct them to the next generation of energy technology that will allow for a level of independence for this Nation. We know we can't get from where we are now to where we need to be with renewables only by wishful thinking. It is going to take a strong economy and revenues. Let's help with the revenues from a resource like ANWR. Let's stop sending overseas, to countries that are not our friends today and will likely not be our friends in the future, let's stop sending this incredible transfer of wealth. Let's try to do more here and build in a direction where we have technologies working for us for the future energy needs of this country.

We have not been given the opportunity to advance such an amendment. That is unfortunate for us, unfortunate that we are not having a full-fledged debate, and unfortunate for the people who have been denied this resource for some 30 years.

We opened it. We passed legislation once through the Congress, and it was vetoed 10 years ago by President Clinton. If he had not vetoed that, we would be seeing a million barrels a day coming into this country from the north. We want to be able to provide that.

Mr. ALEXANDER. I thank the Senator. I see the Senator from South Dakota. No one more vigorously advocates for the type alternative energy that the Senator from Alaska was talking about funding research for. The Senator from Alaska talked about the importance of research for advanced biofuels such as cellulosic ethanol. I have heard you talk about that before. It is a very promising area in addition to the ethanol we already produce.

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