00                      HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 25                                                                     
01 Urging the United States Congress and the federal Administration to pursue energy                                       
02 development in the United States to create hundreds of thousands of new American jobs,                                  
03 reduce the nation's dependence on foreign oil, provide domestic economic development,                                   
04 and improve our economic and national security.                                                                         
05 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
06       WHEREAS the federal government recently offered to support Brazil's efforts to                                  
07 develop that nation's offshore oil reserves while failing to support development of energy                              
08 reserves in the United States; and                                                                                      
09       WHEREAS the President recently announced that the United States would become                                    
10 one of Brazil's best customers when that nation begins to produce oil from offshore oil rigs                            
11 operating in up to 14,000 feet of water; and                                                                            
12       WHEREAS the commitment to import Brazilian oil shifts United States dependence                                  
13 on foreign oil from one region to another; and                                                                          
14       WHEREAS the federal government's moratorium on offshore drilling in United                                      
15 States water is costing thousands of jobs, hundreds of millions of dollars in lost wages, and                           

01 potentially billions of dollars in new local, state, and federal tax revenue; and                                       
02       WHEREAS the United States is the most stable market in the world and has vast                                   
03 energy resources ready and waiting to be produced; and                                                                  
04       WHEREAS the federal government should be focusing on increasing responsible                                     
05 development of the nation's energy resources; and                                                                       
06       WHEREAS the federal government estimates there are 21,000,000,000 barrels of                                    
07 proven onshore and offshore oil reserves and 134,000,000,000 barrels of undiscovered,                                   
08 technically recoverable oil reserves in the United States; and                                                          
09       WHEREAS Alaska's outer continental shelf holds an estimated 27,000,000,000                                      
10 barrels of oil and 130,000,000,000,000 cubic feet of natural gas; and                                                   
11       WHEREAS job creation provides the best means to revive the nation's economy, and                                
12 millions of jobs will be created through development of the nation's energy resources; and                              
13       WHEREAS the federal government continues to delay the issuance of new offshore                                  
14 drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico and in Alaska's Chukchi Sea; and                                                 
15       WHEREAS the United States is home to one quarter of the world's coal reserves,                                  
16 with the energy content of the nation's coal resources exceeding the world's known                                      
17 recoverable oil supply, and Alaska's coal deposits are among the best in the world; and                                 
18       WHEREAS the United States contains an estimated 2,074,000,000,000 cubic feet of                                 
19 natural gas reserves, including 237,000,000,000,000 cubic feet in proven reserves;                                      
20       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States                                        
21 Congress and the federal Administration to pursue energy development in the United States to                            
22 create hundreds of thousands of new American jobs, reduce the nation's dependence on                                    
23 foreign oil, provide domestic economic development, and improve our economic and national                               
24 security.                                                                                                             
25       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of                             
26 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and                          
27 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate;                             
28 the Honorable Mitch McConnell, Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable John                                   
29 Boehner, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Nancy Pelosi,                                      
30 Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski                                  
31 and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S.                                         

01 Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.