Congressional Budget for the United States Government for the Fiscal Year 2006
CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET FOR THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT FOR THE FISCAL YEAR 2006 -- (Senate - March 16, 2005)
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, it is important that we do attempt to set the record straight. It is interesting to listen to the back and forth that goes on across the aisle. If Alaska were not my home, if I were not born and raised there, if I had not had an opportunity to know and understand all parts of my incredibly beautiful and diverse State, I would think that they were talking about another place, another world that I was not familiar with. So I feel compelled as an Alaskan to stand before you and talk about the reality of ANWR, the reality of the world that exists up North.
The Senator from Massachusetts made a statement. I apologize if it is not exactly as he stated it, but the inference was that wilderness can't exist with industry, and that is why we should not move forward with opening ANWR to exploration.
The area we are talking about exploring is not in a protected wilderness area. It is in an area that has been designated ``reserved,'' if you will, because of its vast potential oil and gas reserves. It has been recognized by the Congress, by the executive branch, for its potential. It is not in wilderness status. It is not in wilderness status like the 8 million acres directly below the 1002 coastal area. It is not in wilderness status like some 58 million acres of wilderness that are currently in the State of Alaska. The 1002 area is not wilderness.
Therefore, don't mix it in up. Don't make that suggestion.
Others have said we are talking about exploring and drilling in a wildlife refuge. As my colleague from Alaska mentioned to the Senator from Wisconsin, in his State of Wisconsin there are pipelines going through three separate wildlife refuges. There are currently nearly 400 producing wells in the national wildlife refuges nationwide.
The National Audubon Society has received $25 million in royalties from oil development in its sanctuary in Louisiana. It has been receiving this money for decades.
There is nothing unusual nor improper about allowing careful development in a refuge.
We are using 21st century technology. I haven't seen this wildlife refuge which the National Audubon Society has in Louisiana, but I am certain they are making sure, if they are developing it, that they are doing it in concert, in balance with the environment. That is exactly what we will be doing if we are given permission to go forward in ANWR. How can I tell you we will do that? Because we have been doing it up North for 30 years. We have been refining the technology, the Arctic engineering and technology that goes with extraction of a resource in a pretty harsh environment. Yet, as harsh as it is in the wintertime, it is a very fragile environment during those summer months. Alaskans appreciate our climate and our geography. We figured that we have to do it right or we could cause harm to the environment.
When we talk about the roadless areas we have available for exploration, we mean it. We do mean that we are going to put down an ice road that will disappear when the summer comes. In fact, we are so rigid on it, we don't even lay the ice road for the following year in the same area just so there is no impact to that tundra, no impact to that area.
I take great offense to the preliminary implication that some of my colleagues have made that, somehow or other, the North Slope is some industrial wasteland. They made the comment that the air and the skies were like the pollution in Washington, DC. Let me tell you, as an Alaskan, I am outright offended at that kind of a comment.
You come up North, you look at the air, and you breathe the air, if it is not too cold. The fact is, we have put environmental safeguards and standards on our industry unlike any other place in the world. I have seen what we have done in the lower 48. Quite honestly, I can understand why some of my colleagues are concerned about industry in Alaska, because they have seen it in their States. They have seen what they can do. But we have said no. We have learned from your mistakes. We are going to make sure that when you have a vehicle, you put a diaper under that vehicle. It sounds crazy, but we are not going to accept any kinds of spills. We are not going to accept any kind of environmental degradation. We have controls over it. We are going to make sure we do it right.
When they talk about the spills--I mentioned yesterday on the floor that we have spills. We require in the State of Alaska that everything you drop on the ground is reported. Do you know what is mostly reported? It is the seawater, the saltwater that is used to inject. Whether it is a spill of saltwater, whether it is a spill of chemicals, or a gallon of oil, hydraulic oils, you have to report it. You report it, and you clean it up.
When I took these colleagues North with me 2 weeks ago, they were amazed at the environmental culture within the industry. It is not necessarily because the industry has said we should do it; it is because we in Alaska care, and we are going to make sure you are going to do it right. If you are not going to do it right in our State, you are not welcome to do business. It is more expensive to do business in Alaska because we are a long way away, which sometimes makes it difficult. Part of it is we demand that you do it better.
Where does that put us? We are a nation reliant on oil. We are 58 percent reliant on foreign sources of oil. Oil just hit 56 bucks a barrel, and we are 58 percent reliant on foreign sources.
We have an opportunity to make a difference in this country.
I have had some of the opposition suggest there is not really that much there. Let us take the median. Let us just assume for purposes of discussion here today that we are able to get a million barrels of oil a day. At the height of the Prudhoe fields, we were at 2 million barrels a day through our pipeline. We were providing 20 percent of America's domestic needs.
What is a million barrels? Aside from the fact that you get a million barrels 365 days a year, what is it? It is enough fuel to run the State of Maryland for 100 years. It can fuel every car in every home in Washington State for 68 years. It is enough fuel to replace all of our imports from Saudi Arabia for 25 years--25 years. It is enough fuel to double all of the oil taken out of Texas for the past 75 years. It is enough oil to save America from writing a $54 million check to OPEC every day at the current prices. Fifty-four million dollars is what we are writing to OPEC today. Actually, I think that number goes up because the price of oil has now bumped up to $56 a barrel.
The fact is, it is not just about increased domestic production. We need to have balanced our energy policy. We know we can't drill our way out of it. We know we can't conserve our way out of it. We know we have to work on balance, promote conservation, efficiency, developing alternatives, but it has to also include more domestic production to reduce our dependency on OPEC and other unstable regimes.
We have to do more.
I used the phrase yesterday: We have to think globally and act locally. Let us not export our issues overseas. Let us not be reliant on Russia, Columbia, Africa, or Venezuela. We need to recognize, though, if we park every single car in America today and say that is it, we are going to take a step, we are not going to be so reliant on oil, the fact is we would still need oil, whether it is for Band-Aids, CDs, or heart replacement valves. We use oil every day in our world. We need to do what we can at the domestic level to meet our energy needs to the fullest extent possible. ANWR offers us that opportunity.
Please give us in Alaska the chance to show you how we will continue to do it right for years to come.
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I urge my colleagues to vote against the Cantwell amendment. We have an opportunity today to open a very tiny portion of Alaska's coastal plain to exploration and opportunity. This is an opportunity for us to focus on energy security, economic security, and environmental security. The price of oil just bumped up to 56 bucks a barrel this morning. What we are talking about in terms of the security for domestic reserves is on average a million barrels of oil per day.
The other side has said it doesn't mean much. Let me tell you what it means. It is enough fuel to run the State of Maryland for 100 years. It is enough fuel for every car and every home in Washington State for 68 years. It is enough fuel to replace all of our imports from Saudi Arabia for 25 years. It is enough fuel to double all of the oil taken out of east Texas in the past 75 years. This needs to be part of an overall energy plan.
I urge the Senate to oppose this amendment.
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