Native leaders discuss overcoming challenges

and harnessing opportunities in the Arctic

While the Arctic has come into focus as it stands on the front lines of a changing global climate, Inupiat leader Rex A. Rock, Sr. told a packed crowd at RDC’s 35th Annual Alaska Resources Conference that “this is not a world of plug-and-chug repetition, this is a world of dynamic changes and Alaskans need to adapt to those changes.”

Rock, President and CEO of Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC), discussed changes that are occurring in the Arctic, including a longer open water season off shore, but emphasized the Inupiat are one of the most adaptable people on the planet. “The only constant we know is change,” Rock said. “We adapt and thrive,” Rock said, describing the Inupiat culture as one of perseverance and resilience.

Rock discussed three challenges Arctic residents face: environmental organizations and their “never-ending” lawsuits, federal overreach, and development of Arctic policy without the involvement of local residents.

“We face the impacts of environmental organizations and animal rights groups joining together on anything Arctic – it is a policy of using the threat of litigation to eff ect change, by freezing an agency into inaction, or actually using the courts to establish their own goals,” Rock said. “They are having a costly impact on our lives and our communities. They want to stop development and those same groups will target our subsistence lifestyle next.”

The Point Hope whaling captain who heads up the multi-billion dollar Native corporation for the North Slope, said the region is fi ghting back. “We learned that our tribal entities feel like they are being used and abused by environmental groups and want to be rid of them. The eNGOs come to our communities and they use our people for PR purposes –using a Native face to raise money for their global campaigns. They don’t live in the Arctic, nor do they provide money to our tribes.”

Rex Rock and Thomas Mack spoke to a capacity luncheon at RDC’s 35th Annual Alaska Resources Conference in Anchorage November 19-20.

Rock also expressed frustration with the federal government. “In my opinion, the federal government has been over thinking everything. Under the infl uence of lawsuithappy eNGOs, they seem to hesitate for an unnaturally long time before acting, and then act in a manner which shows their hypersensitivity to potential litigation. My hope is that the recent mid-term elections will give the federal government reason to rethink their priorities. He pointed to an everchanging regulatory climate and long delays in permitting for oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve, including ConocoPhillips’ Greater Mooses Tooth project on ASRC lands. He also discussed alignment between Shell, ASRC, and six village corporations for investment in offshore Arctic oil and gas leases.

“Our recently inked deal with Shell and the village corporations demonstrates a true alignment and partnership that incorporates shared risk and shared benefit,” Rock said.

“I strongly believe this was the right thing to do,” Rock said. “We have a seat at the table with Shell during the decisionmaking process, we will know the project and have the opportunity to influence it. If Shell is successful, we will have addressed our shareholder (North Slope residents) dividend needs well into the future – just like our past leaders have done for our generation,” Rock noted.

Duo keynote speaker Thomas Mack, President of Aleut Corporation, also shared his views of the Arctic.

“Many outside Alaska feel we need to be saved and protected,” Mack noted. “As Alaskans, and me personally being an indigenous Alaska Native, we will not put up with that.”

He spoke about the massive potential of resource development and the three major Arctic transportation lanes that are slowly opening up in the Arctic.

“Twenty years ago some Alaskans joked – we should be sending prisoners to Adak for incarceration – it’s in the middle of nowhere,” Mack quipped. “Today, Adak is positioned to become Alaska’s front door to Arctic exploration and home to a new world order of shipping routes and a major shipping hub.”

Mack said Adak has positioned the Aleutians as a transshipment hub and an industrial support center. He said it is an ideal location for offshore oil field supply services. Adak is also centrally located to emerge as a hub for domestic and international commercial shipping as Arctic ice retreats and northern shipping routes are opened.

Mack explained that the current voyage from Europe to Asia takes 28 days through the Suez Canal. But today, Mack said “we stand on the verge of a shipping revolution as we watch the Arctic open up.”

Once the northern route opens, shipping time from Europe to Asia will be cut by 50 percent, Mack noted. In addition, shipping time from Europe to the West Coast will fall 40 percent.

Mack said opportunity is coming and Alaskans need to be prepared to lead. “While those in this room understand the challenges and opportunities in the Arctic, we are lagging behind in messaging to both public policy makers and our fellow Americans. The development of the Arctic is still a far off concept to most people, so a sense of urgency doesn’t exist, even among some of our key policy makers.”

Mack, who sits on the Arctic Economic Council, noted that the U.S. will be taking over the Arctic Council chairmanship in 2015. “We need to leverage the power of the council to broaden our voice.” The council will be focusing on the safe, responsible, economic development of the Arctic region with the indigenous people’s well-being in its forefront.

Mack noted that fellow Arctic neighbors like Russia and Canada are more engaged and far more advanced in their messaging. “These countries recognize the critical importance the Arctic will play in the future of their countries, and are responding with urgency.”

Taking the lead on Arctic strategy is an issue of both national energy security and coastal security, Mack said. “We must broaden our voice to promote both a greater understanding of the economic opportunities in the Arctic, and threats we will face if we refuse to lead,” he said.

Mack sees vast potential that will emerge as shipping lanes open. “As indigenous people and an indigenous company, we have a vision for sustainable Arctic development that will increase the long-term economic opportunities in our region,” Mack said. “This vision relies on a collective effort to ensure Alaskans define the terms of engagement, rather than be relegated to a reactionary role.”

In closing, Mack said, “The last frontier is now the first frontier of the Arctic.”

The federal government defines the Arctic as the North Slope, down the coastline of the Bering Straits and the entire Alaska Peninsula on the Bering Sea side of the Aleutians.

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