{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/alaska-delegation-now-is-the-right-time-to-open-alaskas-1002-area", "Alaska Delegation: Now is the Right Time to Open Alaskas 1002 Area", "2017-11-02", "2017", "2017-11", "Republican", "House", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", null, null, "legacy", "11.02.17\n\t\t\t Alaska Delegation: Now is the Right Time to Open Alaska\u2019s 1002 Area \n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t \n\t\n\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\n        \n\t\t\t\t Limited Development Will Create Jobs, Reduce Deficits, Generate New Wealth,  and Strengthen National Security\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today chaired a hearing focused on the potential for oil and gas development in the non-wilderness portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), known as the \u201c1002 Area\u201d or Coastal Plain, to meet the $1 billion budget reconciliation instruction the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee received last week in H. Con. Res. 71. During the hearing, Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Rep. Don Young, both R-Alaska, provided opening statements for committee members.\u00a0\r\nMurkowski opened the hearing by emphasizing that the 1002 Area is not federal wilderness, and separate from the wilderness in ANWR. In 1980, Congress specifically designated the 1002 Area for consideration for oil and gas exploration. Today, Alaskans are asking to develop just 2,000 federal acres within it \u2013 about one ten-thousandth of all of ANWR. Murkowski explained that limited, responsible development would generate new wealth and prosperity for Alaska and the nation, among many other substantial economic benefits.\u00a0\r\n\u201cOpening the 1002 Area to responsible oil and gas development will create thousands of new jobs, and those jobs will pay the types of wages that support families and put our kids through college,\u201d said Murkowski. \u201cIt will also generate tens of billions of dollars in revenues over the life of the fields for every level of government.\u201d\r\nMurkowski also explained how the environmental footprint of development on Alaska\u2019s North Slope has shrunken dramatically since Prudhoe Bay began operations in the 1970s, and the stringent standards that Alaskans have put in place to protect local wildlife.\r\n\u201cThe Central Arctic caribou herd, which lives year-round in and around Prudhoe Bay, is now more than seven times larger than when development began,\u201d said Murkowski. \u201cFor over 40 years now, Alaskans have repeatedly proven that we can develop safely and responsibly, and development in the 1002 Area will be no different. We will not harm the caribou; or the polar bears, whose dens can be protected; or the snow geese, whose nesting areas can be safeguarded; or any of the other birds and wildlife that visit the Coastal Plain in the summer.\u201d\u00a0\r\nBetween the 1970s and today, the surface footprint of Arctic development decreased by about 80 percent. What was once a 65-acre pad now takes up 12 acres or less. Below ground, extended reach drilling from a single pad will grow to an area of 125 square miles by 2020\u2014an increase of more than 4,000 percent from the 1970s.\u00a0\r\nSullivan, Young, and Alaska Gov. Bill Walker provided opening statements about the economic and national security benefits of opening the 1002 Area to responsible development.\r\n\u201cOpening the small section of the 1002 area in ANWR for development will strengthen our national security,\u201d said Sullivan, who has been a Marine for 24 years, a former U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, and sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee. \u201cWhen we don\u2019t have to import energy from countries that don\u2019t like us, or better yet, when we can export American energy to our allies like Japan and Korea, or even a country like China, this helps our national security and foreign policy.\u201d\r\nIn a move that caught the attention of lawmakers and attendees, Young drew a dot on the tip of his nose to illustrate the size of surface impact in comparison to the greater ANWR area.\r\n\u201cYou see anything different on my nose right now,\u201d Young asked the panel. \u201cI am Alaska. One tenth of one tenth percent is what we\u2019re talking about in disturbance\u2026This little dot on my nose \u2013 I weigh 225 lbs. \u2013 this little dot is what we\u2019re talking about in surface impact in the 10-02 Area. That\u2019s a potential for approximately \u2013 early estimates were 10 billion barrels \u2013 and now estimates are probably around 20 billion barrels of oil.\u201d\r\n\u201cUsing the Energy Information Administration\u2019s projections for the price of oil and USGS\u2019s resource estimate for ANWR, the Alaska Department of Natural Resources (DNR) estimates that oil production from federal lands in the 1002 Area will generate $175 billion dollars in royalty and tax revenues for Alaska over the potential 40-plus year life of the basin,\u201d said Walker.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\r\nThe committee also received testimony from a number of Alaskans who strongly support opening the 1002 Area: Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott, State of Alaska; Richard Glenn, executive vice president for land and natural resources of the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation; Matthew Rexford, tribal administrator of the Native Village of Kaktovik; and Aaron Schutt, president and CEO of Doyon, Ltd. Each highlighted the broad support of Alaskans.\r\n\u201cAs Congress originally considered in ANCSA and ANILCA, it must be determined whether these economic benefits can be pursued in a safe manner that protects the wildlife of the Alaska North Slope. I believe the State\u2019s longstanding success shows that it definitively can, and thus should be done,\u201d said Mallott.\r\n\u201cThe reality is that the survival of our region and the development of our communities today depend on continued exploration and production,\u201d said Glenn. \u201cWithout this economic driver, our communities will need access to greater government subsidies and programs in order to be sustained.\u201d\r\n\u201cAs I\u00f1upiat, we stand to be unarguably the most affected by oil and gas activity in the Arctic. Therefore, we have the greatest stake in seeing that any and all development keeps our land and subsistence resources safe,\u201d said Rexford. \u201cWe know it can be done, because it\u2019s being done.\u201d\r\n\u201cThe official environmental impact statement for ANWR development from the U.S. Department of the Interior, now three decades old, showed that ANWR\u2019s total potential oil reserves could be developed while only affecting about 2,000 acres of the surface of the coastal plain,\u201d said Schutt. \u201cThe technology available to oil and gas companies today supports that assessment. Development will not physically touch 99.99 percent of the refuge, and it would leave untouched all of the refuge\u2019s current 7.16 million acres of formal wilderness.\u201d\r\nMurkowski is chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. An archived video and testimony from today\u2019s hearing are available on the committee\u2019s website. Click here to view Murkowski\u2019s questions for the first panel of witnesses, and here for the second panel.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/alaska-delegation-now-is-the-right-time-to-open-alaskas-1002-area"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.2300409618765116, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}