SJR 15: Urging the United States Congress to fund all the facilities and vessels necessary for the United States Coast Guard to fulfill its Arctic missions, including icebreakers and an Arctic Coast Guard base.
00 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 15 01 Urging the United States Congress to fund all the facilities and vessels necessary for the 02 United States Coast Guard to fulfill its Arctic missions, including icebreakers and an 03 Arctic Coast Guard base. 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 WHEREAS the purchase of Alaska in 1867 made America an Arctic nation; and 06 WHEREAS Alaska was admitted to statehood in 1959, on equal footing with the 07 previously admitted states; and 08 WHEREAS Alaska deserves full recognition and assistance from the federal 09 government like any other state; and 10 WHEREAS Art. IV, sec. 4, of the Constitution of the United States, requires the 11 United States to protect each of the states against invasion and does not specify a preference 12 for protection of one state over any other; and 13 WHEREAS the United States Arctic Region Policy revised in 2009 calls for the 14 protection of commerce, the protection of the environment, and improved safety, security, and 15 reliability of transportation in the Arctic region; and
01 WHEREAS ice cover in the Arctic is at historic lows, and multiyear ice is decreasing; 02 and 03 WHEREAS the entire Arctic region, including the Arctic region of the United States, 04 is experiencing increased human activity related to shipping, oil and gas development, 05 commercial fishing, and tourism; and 06 WHEREAS the increased activity in the Arctic underscores a commensurate need for 07 immediate investment in the Arctic region of the United States to enable the responsible 08 development of resources, foster maritime commerce, safeguard the well-being of Arctic 09 residents and ecosystems, facilitate emergency and disaster preparedness and response, and 10 protect United States sovereignty; and 11 WHEREAS the Alaska Northern Waters Task Force, established in 2010, 12 recommends that the Alaska State Legislature encourage the federal government to establish a 13 United States Coast Guard base in the Arctic and to fund the construction of additional 14 icebreakers and ice-capable vessels for the United States fleet; and 15 WHEREAS, as Northern sea routes open and foreign shippers set their sights on 16 Asian markets, international shipping of oil and gas and other potentially hazardous cargo 17 through the Bering Strait is rapidly increasing; and 18 WHEREAS the United States and its trading partners could reap economic benefits 19 from accessing Northern sea routes with the help of modern, fully equipped icebreakers; and 20 WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard has 11 statutory missions, including 21 search and rescue, marine safety, ports, waterways, and coastal security, drug interdiction, 22 migrant interdiction, defense readiness, living marine resources, marine environmental 23 protection, aids to navigation, ice operations, and other law enforcement; and 24 WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard's missions relate to protecting the public, 25 the environment, and United States economic interests in the nation's ports and waterways, 26 along the coast, on international waters, and in any maritime region, as required for national 27 security; and 28 WHEREAS the National Contingency Plan further requires the United States Coast 29 Guard to oversee oil spill planning and preparedness in coastal waters and to supervise oil 30 spill response; and 31 WHEREAS the United States Congress and the Administration are mandated by
01 numerous laws and policies to maintain icebreaking operations; and 02 WHEREAS those mandates include President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936 03 Executive Order 7521, which requires the United States Coast Guard to keep channels and 04 harbors open to navigation by means of icebreaking operations; the Arctic Research Policy 05 Act of 1984, which directs the United States Office of Management and Budget to build and 06 deploy icebreakers and allocate funds necessary to support icebreaking operations; the Coast 07 Guard Authorization Act of 2010, which requires the United States Coast Guard to promote 08 safe maritime navigation by means of icebreaking where necessary, feasible, and effective; 09 and the 2011 Unified Command Plan, which sets new boundaries and responsibilities for the 10 United States combatant commands, and directed the United States Northern Command to 11 take the lead in advocating for new resources in the Arctic; and 12 WHEREAS the binding Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement signed by the eight 13 Arctic nations at the Arctic Council in May 2011 commits the United States to search and 14 rescue response within the Arctic sector of the United States, including waters north of 15 Alaska, Bristol Bay, and the Bering Sea; and 16 WHEREAS the promise to provide search and rescue operations in the Arctic sector 17 of the United States is compromised without sufficient icebreakers and other United States 18 Coast Guard assets; and 19 WHEREAS the January 2012 delivery of fuel to Nome, Alaska, by the Russian fuel 20 tanker Renda, escorted by the United States Coast Guard's only polar class icebreaker, Healy, 21 emphasized the need for increased United States icebreaker presence in the Arctic; and 22 WHEREAS, at present, the United States has only one polar class icebreaker in 23 service, the United States Coast Guard Cutter Healy, a vessel designed for scientific research 24 and response operations; and 25 WHEREAS a second polar class icebreaker, the United States Coast Guard Cutter 26 Polar Star, is undergoing extensive repairs in Seattle, Washington, and is scheduled to return 27 to service in 2013, at which time it is predicted it should function effectively for only another 28 seven to 10 years; and 29 WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star's sister ship, the United 30 States Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea, was taken out of service in 2011; and 31 WHEREAS Russia has a fleet of eight nuclear-powered icebreakers; China has one
01 large icebreaking research ship supporting science in both polar regions and is building a 02 second, smaller but more powerful icebreaking research ship that is scheduled to be ready in 03 2013; Canada has committed $38,000,000,000 to a 30-year plan to build additional 04 icebreakers and other ice-strengthened ships; and Sweden, Finland, South Korea, and Japan 05 have added icebreakers to their fleets; and 06 WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard estimates that designing and constructing 07 a new polar class ice breaker will take seven to 10 years; and 08 WHEREAS having a sufficient number of ice-capable vessels, including shallow- 09 draft vessels with icebreaking capability, is vital for the United States Coast Guard to fulfill 10 its expanding mission in the Arctic; and 11 WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard has very limited Arctic emergency 12 response capabilities and no permanent bases near the Bering Strait chokepoint or on Alaska's 13 North Slope to support the United States Coast Guard operations; and 14 WHEREAS the most northern United States Coast Guard base in the United States in 15 Kodiak, Alaska, is more than 1,000 miles from possible Chukchi Sea drilling sites and nearly 16 as far from existing Arctic shipping lanes in the Bering Strait, and that distance causes 17 untenable logistical problems that negatively affect response times and capabilities; and 18 WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard should have a greater overall presence in 19 the Arctic, with the ability to stage assets closer to future shipping, oil and gas drilling, and 20 commercial fishing activities; 21 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 22 Congress and the Administration to fund all facilities and vessels necessary to enable the 23 United States Coast Guard to fulfill its Arctic missions, including icebreakers and an Arctic 24 Coast Guard base; and be it 25 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 26 Congress and the Administration to consider all options to finance icebreakers, including 27 charging for icebreaker escorts, the option to lease rather than own the icebreakers needed in 28 the Arctic, and selling our aging icebreakers to the private sector for refurbishment. 29 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of 30 the United States; the Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, United States Secretary of State; 31 the Honorable Admiral Robert J. Papp, Commandant, United States Coast Guard;
01 Ambassador David A. Balton, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Fisheries, United 02 States Department of State; Rear Admiral Thomas F. Ostebo, Commander, United States 03 Seventeenth Coast Guard District; Gustaf Lind, Chair, Arctic Council, Senior Arctic Officials, 04 and Senior Arctic Official of Sweden; Julia L. Gourley, Arctic Council, Senior Arctic Official 05 of the United States; Sheila Riordon, Arctic Council, Senior Arctic Official of Canada; Nauja 06 Bianco, Arctic Council, Senior Arctic Official of Denmark, Greenland, and Faroe Islands; 07 Hannu Halinen, Arctic Council, Senior Arctic Official of Finland; Hjalmar W. Hannesson, 08 Arctic Council, Senior Arctic Official of Iceland; Karsten Klepsvik, Arctic Council, Senior 09 Arctic Official of Norway; Anton Vasiliev, Arctic Council, Senior Arctic Official of the 10 Russian Federation; the Honorable Sean Parnell, Governor of Alaska; the Honorable Mead 11 Treadwell, Lieutenant Governor of Alaska; the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the Honorable 12 Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of 13 the Alaska delegation in Congress; and all other members of the 112th United States 14 Congress.