Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions
Floor Speech
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S. 351. A bill to authorize the exploration, leasing, development, and production of oil and gas in and from the western portion of the Coastal Plain of the State of Alaska without surface occupancy, and for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce two separate bills, S. 351 and S. 352, to open a small portion of the Arctic coastal plain, in my home State of Alaska, to oil and gas development. I am introducing these bills because new production in northern Alaska is vital not only to my State's future, but also to our Nation's energy and economic security.
It has been known for more than 3 decades that the 1.5 million acres of the Arctic coastal plain that lie inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge present the best prospect in North America for a major oil and gas discovery. The U.S. Geological Survey continues to estimate that this part of the coastal plain--which represents just 3 percent of the coastal plain in all of northern Alaska--has a mean likelihood of containing 10.4 billion barrels of oil and 8.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, as well as a reasonable chance of economically producing 16 billion barrels of oil. Even the relatively recent major finds in North Dakota's Bakken field pale in comparison, as ANWR is likely to hold over four times more oil than any other on-shore energy deposit in North America.
In the 1990s, opponents dismissed ANWR's potential and argued that the nearby National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska was forecast to contain almost as much oil. Just last fall, however, the U.S. Geological Survey significantly reduced its oil estimates in the 23-million-acre reserve. Instead of containing somewhere between the 6.7 to 15 billion barrels forecast in 2002, the USGS now forecasts a mean of 896 million barrels--a dramatic downward revision.
I still believe oil production must be allowed to proceed in NPRA and that development of satellite fields west of Nusqiut must be allowed to occur, since I suspect its forecast is now too conservative. My office is working to hold this Administration to its word on NPRA by allowing leaseholders to access the CD5 development which the EPA and Corps of Engineers has now stalled. But the reduced forecast for northwest Alaska also means that opening a small area due east, along the coastal plain, is now more vital than ever for America's economic and national security interests.
America today receives over 10 percent of its daily domestic oil production from fields in Arctic Alaska. You heard correctly, production already occurs in Arctic Alaska, and for more than 30 years, we have successfully balanced resource development with environmental protection. Alaskans have proven, over and over again, that those endeavors are not mutually exclusive.
Today, however, we face a tipping point. Alaska's North Slope production has declined for years and, with new development blocked at every turn, it is now forecast to decline to levels that are threatening the continued operation of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. A closure of TAPS would shut down all northern Alaska oil production. This would devastate Alaska's economy, drag global oil prices even higher, and deepen our energy dependence on unstable petrostates throughout the world.
Anyone who takes the long view on energy policy recognizes that no matter what energy policy our Nation pursues, we will use substantial amounts of oil well into the future. The more of that oil we produce here, at home, the better off our economy, our trade deficit, our employment levels, and the world's environment will be. Even the President's handpicked oil spill commission advocates that the U.S. take the lead on environmental and safety standards for oil development in areas like the Arctic and Gulf of Mexico, but we cannot honestly expect to take a leadership role if we are viewed as foolishly leaving our resources in the ground. We are still more than 50 percent dependent on foreign nations for our supply of oil, and no combination of alternative technologies and conservation can appreciably diminish that number in the near future.
The Energy Information Administration, in its recent preliminary 2011 Energy Forecast, predicts that U.S. crude production may increase by roughly 10 percent by 2019 because of enhanced oil recovery, increased shale oil production, and higher oil prices, which make marginal production more attractive. That will hardly be enough to break our import dependence, but even more alarming is the forecast that U.S. domestic production will decline less than a decade from now unless these new areas are opened for development. To help meet future demand both here in America and throughout the rest of the world--and to help avoid a tremendous price spike in the event of a supply disruption--we need to take steps today to ensure new production is brought online as soon as possible.
In fact, we already face a supply disruption--a shortage of our own making. Not one permit for deepwater exploration has been granted since the Deepwater Horizon disaster last April, even though the moratorium was officially ended in October. Depending on how long this de facto moratorium lasts, our Nation could ultimately be deprived of millions of barrels of oil each day. Make no mistake: we are facing a serious downturn in offshore oil production from the Outer Continental Shelf, and that has made production in ANWR even more important for consumers.
ANWR development will also provide huge benefits for the U.S. Treasury. Let us examine this with some simple math. ANWR's mean estimate of over 10 billion barrels, at approximately $100 per barrel, means that there is a trillion dollars worth of oil locked up beneath this small area in northern Alaska. That is a trillion taxable dollars and it is difficult to calculate or even fathom the corporate and payroll taxes that this would generate for our treasury. But we do know that there is hundreds of billions of dollars in pure federal royalties since my bill devotes 50 percent of the value to a Federal share, rather than the 10 percent which current law allows. This is because deficit reduction has to be a priority.
As our Nation grapples with a $1 trillion budget deficit, $14 trillion in national debt, and a lack of capital to incentivize renewable and alternative energy, it is folly for America to further delay new onshore oil development from Alaska. Production in ANWR will lower our unsustainable debt; improve our national security; reduce our trade deficit; create well-paying American jobs; and provide a long-lasting source of funds that can help us develop the next generation of energy technologies. The question is no longer, ``should we drill in ANWR?'' Today, it has become, ``can we afford not to?''
I understand that no matter what happens, some will remain opposed to development in this region. There are Senators who wish to not only prohibit oil and gas development onshore in the coastal plain--who wish to forever lock the area up into formal wilderness--but who also wish to impede oil and even natural gas development from vast portions of NPRA and from the offshore waters of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. This mindset ignores Alaska's economic realities, it ignores the nation's looming energy challenges, and it ignores the fact that Arctic oil production can proceed without significant environmental harm. Our development has coexisted productively with polar bears, and will not harm the Porcupine caribou herd or any other form of wildlife on the Arctic coast. The groups who oppose my legislation seem totally oblivious to strides made in directional, extended reach drilling, three- and four-D seismic testing, and new pipeline leak detection technology, all of which permit Alaskan energy development to proceed safely without harm to wildlife or the environment.
Yes, this Nation needs to improve its inspection and regulation of the oil and gas industry to make sure that America's high environmental standards are followed on every well, every day. I offer a means to advance that. Because without domestic oil and gas production, America will import more oil and gas from troubled global regions. In exchange we will export our jobs and economic future, as well as simply exporting environmental risk and ultimately damage, since foreign oil and gas development regularly fails to meet the standards that American operators are held to and held accountable for.
For all these reasons, I am reintroducing legislation to open the coastal plain of ANWR to full development. At the same time, I am focusing and narrowing and limiting that development so that just 2,000 acres of the 1.5 million acre coastal plain can be physically disturbed by roads, pipelines, wells, buildings or other support facilities. At most, just one-tenth of one percent of the refuge's coastal plain would be physically disturbed. For comparison's sake, 2,000 acres is much smaller than our local Dulles Airport--compared to an area roughly three times the size of the State of Maryland. It is hardly a blip on the map.
Limiting development to such a small area is important, however. It will help guarantee--beyond any shadow of doubt--the preservation in a natural state of more than sufficient habitat for caribou, muskoxen, polar bear, and Arctic bird life. My legislation also includes stringent environmental standards that will allow the designation of specific areas for full protection.
The full opening bill, named the American Energy Independence and Security Act, AEIS, also includes guaranteed funding to mitigate any impacts in the region, and guarantees that the federal government will receive half of all revenues generated, with nearly half going for the first time in the history of ANWR legislation to directly reduce the Federal deficit. The bill allots other money to fund renewable and alternative energy development, wildlife programs and fishery habitat programs, energy conservation efforts, and money to subsidize the rising cost of energy for lower-income residents through funding of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, also called LIHEAP. Think about this--by producing more of our own oil, we can conserve more of our most spectacular lands, improve the standard of living for thousands of Americans, and, in one fell swoop, reduce our overall dependence on oil by creating new, cleaner alternatives.
Despite these remarkable benefits, I understand that many of my colleagues will forever oppose all development in ANWR., That is why, in 2009, I worked with my fellow Senator from Alaska to introduce a new approach that would allow the coastal plain's resources to be accessed in an even more sensitive manner. Our legislation precludes any possibility of any disturbance to any creature on the coastal plain by requiring that all oil and gas in the refuge's coastal plain be siphoned from underneath the land, with no surface roads, wells, or pipelines to assist. Not a single structure would be erected on the surface of the refuge under our bill. There would be literally no chance of marring the beauty of the coastal plain--it would look and feel and be just as it is today both during and after full production.
Today, and again in the spirit of bipartisan compromise, I am reintroducing, with Senator BEGICH, that legislation. The title is self-explanatory--we call it the No Surface Occupancy Western Arctic Coastal Plain Domestic Energy Security Act--because it would allow oil and gas production only through extended reach directional drilling from outside of the refuge. The bill would also permit oil and gas to be tapped using subsurface technology that may someday allow for full development of the refuge with no sign of such activities visible to anyone or anything in the refuge.
While I was deeply disappointed that many in the environmental community did not embrace or even for a moment consider this proposal as a genuine attempt to end the quarter century fight over Alaskan energy development, I continue to believe that it is an acceptable, deeply sensitive way to pursue development in the Arctic. Given the new extended reach drilling technology being developed for use all over the world, including Alaska, it could be possible to start producing oil and gas from ANWR even faster under the subsurface bill than might be the case under the full leasing bill.
Admittedly, while current technology will only permit wells to reach 8 miles into refuge's boundary, that should still allow us to reach up to 1.2 billion barrels of oil and 7 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. As technology improves in the years ahead, so too will the volume of resources that we can safely recover.
My no-surface occupancy bill will require that 3- or 4-dimensional seismic and other tests be conducted by mobile units on ice pads when no wildlife will be in the area. But the bill prevents any disturbance that can even be seen by migrating caribou. There is precedent for this proposal. Congress in 2007 approved a Wyoming wilderness lands bill S. 2229, the Wyoming Range Legacy Act, which permits subsurface resource extraction, provided no surface occupancy occurs. There is also clear language in the original statute, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which calls for seismic studies of the coastal plain.
My ANWR subsurface legislation will guarantee that royalties from any oil and gas produced are split equally between the Federal and State treasuries, and provides for full environmental protections and project labor agreements for any development that results. The bill includes the same provisions for local adaptation aid as does my bill to fully open ANWR. Both guarantee that any Alaskan community impacted by development, especially residents of the North Slope Borough and the nearby Village of Kaktovik, will be fully protected.
My subsurface proposal offers a way for America to gain the oil and natural gas that will be crucial until a new era of renewable energy can power our lights and propel our vehicles. It also ensures that none of the Arctic Porcupine caribou herd that migrates across the coastal plain between June and August will ever see, hear, or feel oil development. Combined with the environmental safeguards the Secretary of the Interior is allowed to establish, there is no danger that any of the few species that overwinter on the coastal plain will ever be impacted by seismic or other activities. Out of an abundance of caution, my legislation further protects subsistence resources and activities for Alaska Natives.
I truly do not believe that limited surface coastal plain development will harm Alaska's environment or hurt its wildlife. But my subsurface bill offers us another way to develop ANWR--and even those who oppose surface development cannot honestly disagree with its approach. My subsurface bill would lower the odds of environmental harm from incredibly miniscule to zero. It would set a precedent for development that should be welcomed by the environmental community. And if it is not actively supported, it will be clear that some oppose ANWR solely on political and philosophical, rather than substantive, environmental grounds. Such opposition would undermine the case against the full opening of the coastal plain for energy development, because it will show that the opposition to ANWR is based on the sands of old fears, ignoring new technology and ignoring reality.
For decades, Alaskans, whom polls show overwhelmingly support ANWR development, have been asking permission to explore and develop oil in the coastal plain. Finally, technology has advanced so that it is possible to develop oil and gas from the refuge with little or no impact on the area and its wildlife. We must seriously consider this option. Without this level of seriousness about our energy policy, there will be no chance for us to stabilize global energy markets and avoid paying extremely high prices for fuel in the future. Our lack of domestic production endangers our energy security and our strategic security, especially given that ANWR development could supply more than enough oil to fully meet our military oil needs on a daily basis.
Last year, shortly after the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the President stated that ``part of the reason oil companies are drilling a mile beneath the surface of the ocean'' is ``because we're running out of places to drill on land and in shallow water.'' A better explanation, however, was offered by the columnist Charles Krauthammer, who said that ``We haven't run out of safer and more easily accessible sources of oil. We've been run off them .....'' The truth is that we haven't run out of oil--onshore or offshore. We've simply tied our own hands by locking up our own lands.
At this time of high unemployment and unsustainable debt, we need to pursue development opportunities more than ever. My ANWR bills offer us a chance to produce more of our own energy, for the good of the American people, in an environmentally-friendly way. With oil hovering near $100 a barrel, with so many of our fellow citizens out of work, and with our Nation still more than 50 percent dependent on foreign oil--we would be foolish to once again ignore our most promising prospect for new development.
I hope this Congress will have the common sense to allow America to help itself by developing ANWR's substantial resources. This is critical to my state and the nation as a whole. And with this in mind, I will work to educate the members of this chamber about ANWR. I will show why such development should occur--why it must occur--and how it can benefit our Nation at a time when we so desperately need good economic news.
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