In September of 2013, five months after President Obama appointed former REI CEO Sally Jewell as Interior Secretary, Jewell came to Alaska and met with the RDC board along with the board of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association (AOGA). At that meeting, we tried to frame the Alaska context, the promises of the statehood compact and the compromises in the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (ANILCA). Unfortunately, the Secretary snipped that we should be “grateful for what you have.”

I think it’s time, as the Secretary suggested some 16 months ago, to reflect on how grateful we are for what we have. In recent weeks the Obama administration has announced its intent to push for Wilderness designation in the 1002 area, the eight percent of ANWR on the coastal plain with an estimated 10 billion barrels of recoverable oil. Add to that ongoing permit delays in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska and additional withdrawals of the offshore arctic to exploration.

Our oil dependent economy is under strain from a global oil price collapse of historic proportions, and the federal government is acting like a tyrant, locking away lands and removing the very means Alaska has to sustain itself as a state. Given all this, here are the reasons why I remain grateful for what we have:

• Alaskans are grateful for the commitments of Congress in the ANILCA legislation of 1980 that putting two-thirds of the federal lands in Alaska in conservation status is enough, and that “the need for more parks, preserves, monuments, wild and scenic rivers, and refuges has been met.”
• We are grateful that the current balance of power in the U.S. House and Senate will make it virtually impossible for the President and Secretary Jewell to implement their ill conceived Wilderness designation of the 1002 area, one of our nation’s most important and strategic energy assets.
• We are grateful that in spite of having a disproportionate share of federal Wilderness, more than all other states combined, Alaska still is blessed with abundant resources on the remaining lands. If we gain access to these lands, they could support our livelihoods, help fund our children’s education, support our communities, reduce poverty and grow our middle class.
• We are grateful that the 1002 area President Obama and Secretary Jewell seek to lock up in perpetuity holds enough oil potential to keep Air Force One flying for decades.
• And speaking of Air Force One, we are grateful that because the President taped his video announcement on the 1002 Wilderness effort from this elaborate jet, the irony and hypocrisy of locking up billions of barrels of domestic energy reserves while burning over 176 gallons of jet fuel and emitting 3,714 tons of carbon dioxide per hour will not be lost on the American people.
• We are grateful that in spite of our differences with our Federal overlords, Alaskans still graciously provide Alaska produced jet fuel to refill Air Force One whenever the President passes though our great state.
• We are grateful that through American ingenuity and continued investment, Alaska’s oil and gas producers have developed the means to safely develop ANWR oil on a footprint of only about 2,000 acres.
• We are grateful that in spite of predictions that oil and gas development would doom the Central Arctic Caribou herd, the herd’s population has increased over ten fold, while 17 billion barrels of oil have been safely produced and transported nearby.
• We are grateful that ANWR has enough oil that could be produced to displace oil from jurisdictions that disregard human rights, degrade women and threaten our national security for decades.
• We are grateful that we are united as Alaskans in our unwillingness to tolerate a federal government that wants to treat Alaska like a colony rather than a sovereign state.
• We are grateful that Governor Bill Walker, our state House and Senate from both sides of the aisle, and our business and Alaska Native leaders, are all on the same page in our dismay of Secretary Jewel’s misinformed decree.
• We are grateful that our Alaska delegation, Senators Murkowski and Sullivan, and Representative Young are ready and willing to use all of their power and influence to ensure the Secretary’s misguided policies do not win congressional approval.
• We are grateful that Senator Murkowski chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resource Committee and the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, and we are confident that if necessary she would use her authority over the Secretary’s budget to command her attention.
• We are grateful Alaskans are strong, unified, and more determined than ever to hold the federal government accountable to the opportunities granted to Alaska as a sovereign state under equal footing with 49 others.

So call me crazy Madam Secretary, but in spite of your flawed and disrespectful policies, Alaskans remain not only grateful, we are more united and energized than I’ve witnessed in my 34 years here.

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