Stop Excessive Energy Speculation Act of 2008 - Motion to Proceed - Continued

Floor Speech

STOP EXCESSIVE ENERGY SPECULATION ACT OF 2008--MOTION TO PROCEED--Continued -- (Senate - July 23, 2008)

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, yesterday I had the opportunity to spend about half an hour on the floor talking about the leasing issues around the country and more particularly in Alaska. I had the opportunity to talk about ANWR and about the NPRA, the National Petroleum Reserve, and spent a fair amount of time on the facts. I was quite pleased this morning to come in and read e-mails from people around the country who said: Thank you for talking about some of the facts. We appreciate learning and understanding what ANWR really is, what the potential is in NPRA. Today, I would like to continue on that subject.

In Alaska, as we know, we have been blessed with incredible resources. There have been some suggestions in the debate on the floor that perhaps there isn't enough oil and gas in this country for us to really make a meaningful impact with new production. So I wish to speak just a little bit to the production side of the energy solution.

According to the latest estimates by the USGS and the Minerals Management Service, it is possible to produce nearly 24 billion barrels of oil and 100.6 trillion cubic feet of gas from onshore areas in northern Alaska--these are mean estimates--and up to another 41 billion barrels of oil and about another 290 trillion cubic feet of gas from offshore waters around Alaska. Just this afternoon, USGS came in with their new Arctic resource appraisal, and they forecast that the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas have a mean chance of containing 30 billion barrels of oil. From an oil perspective, Alaska's Arctic is being forecast to contain a third--a third--of all the undiscovered conventional oil in the Arctic region.

We recognize that when we operate up there, we must protect the environment while we develop that energy, and we will. But Alaska offers a lot of energy potential. When I hear some of the comments on the floor that we simply do not even have enough to start, I beg to differ. The potential production from Alaska is triple America's current proven reserves of oil and would be enough oil to meet the Nation's total oil needs for nearly a decade. The gas reserves are nearly double America's current proven reserves and enough to handle all of America's current natural gas consumption for 18 years. These are not trivial reserves, if we are ever allowed to develop them. Just look at what we have up in ANWR, looking at opening the 1.5 million acres of the 1002, the Arctic Coastal Plain.

As we talk about ANWR and its potential, what we are not really hearing is what ANWR's oil potential really means to the Nation at the current gas prices, recognizing we are right at $130 a barrel.

Earlier this year, the EIA released its latest estimates for ANWR production and what it would mean. At that time, it predicted that ANWR's opening would save the Nation from paying up to $327 billion--$327 billion--to buy oil from overseas over the life of the field. It predicted that it could reduce America's dependence on imported oil down to 48 percent compared to the more than 60 percent dependence we are at currently.

The EIA forecast on ANWR from this winter again actually has been used by some on the floor to argue against opening ANWR, saying ANWR doesn't help the Nation enough, it is going to take too long to have an impact, and therefore we shouldn't be doing it. There is a Chinese proverb out there that says the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago; the second best time is today. I think that holds true with ANWR. Those who make these arguments saying there is not enough and it is too late do not recognize this EIA forecast is based on the most conservative assumptions possible. We believe the benefits are likely to be twice to three times the amount of the official forecast. The reason is this: The report pegs the price of oil in 2020 at $59.49 a barrel in 2006 dollars. They are looking out to 2020, and they are saying: We figure the price of oil is going to be $59.49. Given that oil is more than twice that today and that few economists predict it is going to drop to $70 or $80 a barrel in the future, ANWR production could help to drive down the price at the pump by a whole lot more than the Government officially forecasts.

The International Energy Agency just this week reported that it expects oil prices to rise even further. I know that is not something most Americans want to hear, but given that the era of cheap and easy-to-find gas is over, we should acknowledge that those predictions are reliable.

We all remember the Goldman Sachs comment earlier this year. They forecast that oil could reach $200 a barrel, particularly with the geopolitical tensions that are out there. So opening ANWR could help to lower our prices in this country.

The myth that ANWR production is not worth doing because there is not much oil there is yet, again, another myth. According to EIA's January forecast, ANWR oil development, assuming a 50-50 chance of finding 10.4 billion barrels of oil, is going to produce 780,000 barrels a day starting in 2018. We think that it can be brought on prior to 2018 and believe that is realistic.

We can do more in the State of Alaska. We are ready and standing by to do more, but we need the permission from the Congress to go into ANWR.

I know I just spoke strictly to production. I don't typically like to do that. I like to talk about other efforts, including conservation and renewables. Tonight, it is just the facts on ANWR.

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