Alaskans react to recent actions to shut down oil-rich areas
Alaskans from Barrow to Washington, D.C. continue to push back against recent actions by the Obama administration to shut down vast areas of Alaska’s arctic to oil and gas development.
Alaska’s congressional delegation and Governor Bill Walker denounced President Obama and Interior Secretary Sally Jewell for launching what they call an unprecedented assault on Alaska that will have long-lasting effects on the state’s economy.
Last month, the administration proposed designating 12.8 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as Wilderness, including the coastal plain, and forever blocking oil development on 9.8 million acres of the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas.
“When you look at it all together – between the recommended Wilderness designations for ANWR and the Arctic offshore withdrawals – Alaska has lost more than 22 million acres of land and water where energy could be produced,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
The administration’s revised long-range plan for ANWR would designate 98 percent of it as Wilderness, blocking the potential development of 10 to 16 billion barrels of oil beneath the coastal plain, considered America’s most promising onshore conventional oil and gas prospect. The permanent offshore closures would preclude the potential development of billions of barrels of oil.
In a landmark 1980 compromise, ANWR was expanded from nine million acres to 19 million acres through the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA), which also singled out 1.5 million acres of the coastal plain for its rich oil and gas potential. Eight million acres of ANWR were designated Wilderness at the time, but 1.5 million acres on the coast were excluded and left available for potential development. With advances in technology, development could be confined to a fraction of one percent of the refuge.
Moreover, Congress stated in Section 101 of ANILCA that the new lands act represents a proper balance between conservation and development and no more land would be withdrawn for conservation purposes by the federal government.
The administration’s efforts to designate additional Wilderness in ANWR is dead on arrival in Congress. Only Congress has the power to authorize opening the plain to drilling or shutting it down permanently through a Wilderness designation.
Since the 1980s, there has been a stalemate over the coastal plain. In 1995, President Bill Clinton vetoed a measure that would have opened it to leasing. Years later Senator Ted Stevens was nearly successful in opening it to leasing, winning a majority vote in the Senate, but the effort fell several votes short of the 60 needed to head off a filibuster.
The congressional delegation and Governor Walker said the proposed Wilderness overlays in ANWR, the permanent closure of vast offshore areas, and severe restrictions and mitigation measures on oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska amounted to “declaring war on Alaska’s future.”
“What’s coming is a stunning attack on our sovereignty and our ability to develop a strong economy that allows us, our children and our grandchildren to thrive,” Murkowski said. “It’s clear this administration does not care about us, and sees us as nothing but a territory. The promises made to us at statehood, and since then, mean absolutely nothing to them.”
Senator Dan Sullivan said, “This decision disregards the rule of law and our constitution and specifically ignores many promises made to Alaska in ANILCA.”
Congressman Don Young also blasted the administration. “This callously planned and politically motivated attack on Alaska by the Obama administration is akin to spitting in our faces and telling us it’s raining outside. This latest move is in clear violation of ANILCA’s ‘no more’ clause.”
Governor Walker noted the federal administration’s decision comes at a time when the state is drawing down more than $10 million from savings every day due to low oil prices and low production, despite having more than 40 billion barrels of untapped resources, mostly in federal areas where oil and gas activity is restricted. “It’s clear that our fiscal challenges in both the short and long term would benefit significantly from increased oil production,” Walker said.
Juneau lawmakers were also upset with the federal administration’s ANWR announcement. “President Barack Obama and his lieutenants will permanently harm our people and all Alaskans with his colonial attitude and decision-making,” said Representative Ben Nageak of Barrow.
North Slope Borough Mayor Charlotte Brower said last month’s announcement represents the worst of Washington politics. “We would like to invite President Obama and Secretary Jewell to travel to ANWR and meet with the people that actually live there before proposing these types of sweeping land designations. They might learn that the Inupiat people, who have lived on and cared for these lands for millennia, have no interest in living like relics in a giant, open-air museum,” Brower said.
Alaska Senate President Kevin Meyer noted, “Promises were made at statehood to give us our land and resources to develop for the maximum benefit of Alaskans. This decision effectively negates that promise and will permanently lock up our economic future,” he said.
“The president just doesn’t get it, or he does get it and doesn’t care about the will and voice of Alaskans,” said House Speaker Mike Chenault. “President Obama’s blatant disregard for the Alaska Natives on the North Slope should not be allowed to continue.”
Editor’s Note: Secretary Jewell attended an Alaska Federation of Natives retreat in Kotzebue three weeks after the ANWR announcement.
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