00HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 49                                                                                           
01 Requesting the United States Department of the Interior to clarify regulations                                          
02 being proposed under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990 relating to evidence of                                              
03 financial responsibility that must be shown by offshore facilities.                                                     
04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
05  WHEREAS 33 U.S.C. 2716(c) (sec. 1016, Oil Pollution Act of 1990) requires offshore                                     
06 facilities operating on most surface water and adjacent wetlands to maintain evidence of                                
07 financial responsibility in the amount of $150,000,000; and                                                             
08  WHEREAS the federal definition of "wetlands" includes virtually all nonmountainous                                     
09 areas in Alaska; and                                                                                                    
10  WHEREAS the Minerals Management Service, United States Department of the                                               
11 Interior, has proposed regulations that would define "offshore facility" to include a structure,                        
12 equipment, or device, other than a vessel or deep water port, used for the purpose of exploring                         
13 for, drilling for, producing, storing, handling, transferring, processing, or transporting oil; and                     
14  WHEREAS this definition of "offshore facility" specifically includes motor vehicles,                                   

01 rolling stock, and pipelines located in, on, or under any United States navigable or territorial                        
02 waters; and                                                                                                             
03  WHEREAS the Alaska State Legislature is concerned that, without further                                                
04 clarification, the proposed language of this definition might be interpreted to include marinas,                        
05 port facilities, utility companies, gasoline filling stations, trucking companies, railroads,                           
06 refineries, airports, farms, fishing boats and tenders, manufacturing plants, storage tanks, and                        
07 pipelines; and                                                                                                          
08  WHEREAS this kind of interpretation would be much broader than intended by the                                         
09 Congress when it established financial responsibility requirements for offshore facilities; and                         
10  WHEREAS implementation of a $150,000,000 financial responsibility requirement on                                       
11 offshore facilities under a broad interpretation of the regulations would have a significantly                          
12 adverse effect on Alaska villages and municipalities and would probably devastate the                                   
13 economy of Alaska; and                                                                                                  
14  WHEREAS the Department of the Interior did not hold hearings in Alaska on the                                          
15 proposed regulations;                                                                                                   
16  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully urges the                                                
17 Department of the Interior to clarify the proposed definition of "offshore facility" in the                             
18 financial responsibility regulations so that it will only apply to facilities that are more clearly                     
19 offshore, as intended by the Congress under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990; and be it                                    
20  FURTHER RESOLVED that the Department of the Interior should hold hearings in                                           
21 Alaska before finalizing any regulations under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990.                                           
22  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable J. Bennett Johnston, U.S.                                     
23 Senator and Chair of the U.S. Senate Natural Resources Committee; the Honorable Bruce                                   
24 Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior; Tom Fry, Director, Minerals Management Service, U.S.                                
25 Department of the Interior; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank                                    
26 Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of                                  
27 the Alaska delegation in Congress.