Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise today to introduce two separate bills 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 to my State's future and global energy security.

The 1.5 million acres of the Arctic coastal plain that lie within the non-wilderness portion of the 19 million acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are North America's greatest prospect for conventional onshore production. The U.S. Geological Survey continues to estimate that this part of the coastal plain 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. If produced at a rate of 1 million barrels per day, that supply could last for more than 40 years--bringing us jobs, revenues, and security in every one of them.

Today, Alaska supplies about 7 percent of U.S. crude oil. This is a 4 percent decline since I last introduced similar bills in 2011. It is an even more substantial loss compared to what we have provided in past decades, and what we could be providing today. Importantly, despite the Federal Government owning almost 70 percent of the lands in Alaska, almost all of our oil production is from State lands. The only production on Federal lands is from the Northstar project, a small man-made island that straddles state and federal waters in the Beaufort Sea.

For more than 30 years, my State has successfully balanced resource development with environmental protection. Alaskans have proven, over and over again, that these endeavors are not mutually exclusive, and with advances in technology, the footprint of development projects is only getting smaller. Yet at the Federal level, there is an astonishing refusal to acknowledge that record.

As a result, production on the North Slope continues to decline by about 6 percent annually. With new exploration and development projects on Federal lands blocked or delayed at every turn, Alaska faces a tipping point. Declining production is now threatening the continued operation of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. A closure of TAPS would shut down all northern Alaska oil production, devastating Alaska's economy, causing global oil prices to rise, and deepening our dependence on unstable petrostates throughout the world. Exploration and development in the Arctic offshore and National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska are moving forward, but these resources will not be developed without a viable way to transport them to market.

The bills I introduce today, S. 2408 and S. 2409, would disturb no more than 2,000 acres of the vast coastal plain, and one bill would not allow surface occupancy of the coastal plain, only directional drilling from outside the refuge to access the oil and gas resources. To put this in perspective, 2,000 acres is less than the size of the local Dulles Airport, or about \1/10\ of 1 percent of the refuge. Since these areas are less than 60 miles from TAPS, development in the coastal plain is the quickest, most environmentally-sound way to increase oil production in Alaska and ensure the pipeline will operate well into the future, providing jobs and supporting the economies of both Alaska and the United States.

The terms of both bills include strong protections for fish and wildlife, fish and wildlife habitat, subsistence resources, and the environment. Development could not move forward if it would cause significant adverse impacts to the coastal plain. Both bills also return 50 percent of all revenues to the Federal Government, rather than the 10 percent allowed under current law. At approximately $100 per barrel, and given the Coastal Plain's estimate of over 10 billion barrels, there is a trillion dollars' worth of oil locked up beneath this small area in northern Alaska.

As we continue to struggle with high long-term unemployment and unsustainable national debt, we need to pursue development opportunities more than ever. The shale oil and gas boom on state and private lands in the Lower 48 has been the one shining light as our economy struggles to recover from the recession. My 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 the U.S. nation still about 40 percent dependent on foreign oil--it would be foolish to once again ignore our most promising prospect for new development.

For decades, Alaskans, whom polls show overwhelmingly support development of the coastal plain, have been asking permission to explore and develop the resources located there. 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.

I hope this Congress will have the common sense to allow America to help itself by developing the coastal plain's substantial resources. This is critical to my State and the nation as a whole. With this in mind, I will work to educate the members of this chamber about the opportunity we have and the tremendous benefits it would provide. I will show why such development should occur--why it must occur--and how it can benefit all of us at a time when we so desperately need good economic news.

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