Enrolled HJR 19: Urging the United States Senate to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.
00Enrolled HJR 19 01 Urging the United States Senate to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of the 02 Sea. 03 _______________ 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 WHEREAS the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea preserves freedom 06 of navigation as a basic right of all countries; and 07 WHEREAS the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea permits member 08 nations to claim an exclusive economic zone out to 200 nautical miles from shore, with an 09 exclusive sovereign right to explore, manage, and develop all living and nonliving resources, 10 including deep sea mining, within that exclusive economic zone; and 11 WHEREAS the United States Arctic Research Commission estimates that the United 12 Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea would permit the United States to lay claim 13 beyond the present 200-mile exclusive economic zone to an area of the Arctic Ocean seabed 14 north of Alaska that is about the size of California; and 15 WHEREAS, by not joining the Convention, the United States is forfeiting sovereign 16 rights to and international recognition of an expansion of United States resource jurisdiction 17 by as much as 1,000,000 square kilometers of ocean, an area half the size of the Louisiana
01 Purchase; and 02 WHEREAS, with nearly one-third of all the world's hydrocarbons being produced 03 off-shore, the United States would be unwise to ignore the need for access to extended oil and 04 gas resources on the outer continental shelf; and 05 WHEREAS the United States Geological Survey estimates that the Arctic contains 06 conventional oil and gas resources totaling approximately 90,000,000,000 barrels of oil, 1,669 07 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, and 44,000,000,000 barrels of natural gas liquids, amounting 08 to more than one-fifth of the world's undiscovered, recoverable oil and natural gas resources; 09 and 10 WHEREAS American energy and deep-seabed companies are at a disadvantage in 11 making investments in the outer continental shelf because of the legal uncertainty over the 12 outer limit of the federal continental shelf; and 13 WHEREAS the United States, as a major maritime power and as the country with the 14 largest exclusive economic zone and one of the largest continental shelves, stands to gain 15 more from the Convention in terms of economic and resource rights than any other country; 16 and 17 WHEREAS other Arctic nations have been asserting their sovereignty in the Arctic 18 and making extended continental shelf claims under the United Nations Convention on the 19 Law of the Sea; and 20 WHEREAS the United States, with 1,000 miles of Arctic coast off of the State of 21 Alaska, remains the only Arctic nation that has not ratified the United Nations Convention on 22 the Law of the Sea; and 23 WHEREAS, until the United States ratifies the United Nations Convention on the 24 Law of the Sea, the United States will not become a full partner in cooperative efforts of 25 Arctic nations to address the manifold problems of the region; and 26 WHEREAS, until the United States ratifies the United Nations Convention on the 27 Law of the Sea, the United States cannot participate in deliberations to amend provisions of 28 the Convention that relate to the 29 (1) oil, gas, and mineral resources in the Arctic Ocean and other northern 30 waters; 31 (2) conduct of essential scientific research in the world's oceans;
01 (3) right of the United States to the use of the seas; 02 (4) rules of navigation; 03 (5) effect of the use of the seas on world economic development; and 04 (6) environmental concerns related to the use of the seas; and 05 WHEREAS the United States continues to reject a carefully negotiated accord that 06 enjoys overwhelming international consensus, one that has been adjusted specifically to meet 07 the demands set out by President Ronald Reagan two decades ago; and 08 WHEREAS the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea will have sizable 09 beneficial effects on virtually all states, both coastal and noncoastal, because the United States 10 is heavily dependent on the use, development, and conservation of the world's oceans and 11 their resources; and 12 WHEREAS 161 nations have ratified the United Nations Convention on the Law of 13 the Sea, including almost all of the world's maritime powers; and 14 WHEREAS ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has 15 been pending before the United States Senate since 1994, and seven hearings on the treaty 16 were held by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 2003, 2004, and 17 2007; and 18 WHEREAS, despite favorable reports by the United States Senate Committee on 19 Foreign Relations regarding the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in 2004 20 and 2007, the United States Senate has yet to vote on the ratification of the Convention; and 21 WHEREAS all six of the United States military leaders making up the Joint Chiefs of 22 Staff support Senate ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; and 23 WHEREAS ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea has 24 wide bipartisan support; and 25 WHEREAS, in 2009, the Twenty-Sixth Alaska State Legislature passed a similar 26 resolution to this one; 27 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature again strongly urges the United 28 States Senate in emphatic terms to please ratify the United Nations Convention on the Law of 29 the Sea as soon as possible. 30 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice- 31 President of the United States and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable John F. Kerry,
01 Chair of the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; the Honorable Richard G. Lugar, 02 ranking Republican on the U.S. Senate Committee on Foreign Relations; the Honorable Lisa 03 Murkowski and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, members of the Alaska 04 delegation in Congress; and all other members of the United States Senate.