00                CS FOR SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 15(STA)                                                              
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; and                                                           
07       WHEREAS Alaska deserves full recognition and assistance from the federal                                        
08 government like any other state; and                                                                                    
09       WHEREAS art. IV, sec. 4, of the Constitution of the United States, requires the                                 
10 United States to protect each of the states against invasion and does not specify a preference                          
11 for protection of one state over any other; and                                                                         
12       WHEREAS the United States Arctic Region Policy revised in 2009 calls for the                                    
13 protection of commerce, the protection of the environment, and improved safety, security, and                           
14 reliability of transportation in the Arctic region; and                                                                 
15       WHEREAS ice cover in the Arctic is at historic lows, and multiyear ice is decreasing;                           

01 and                                                                                                                     
02       WHEREAS the entire Arctic region, including the Arctic region of the United States,                             
03 is experiencing increased human activity related to shipping, oil and gas development,                                  
04 commercial fishing, tourism, and other activities; and                                                                  
05       WHEREAS the increased activity in the Arctic underscores a commensurate need for                                
06 immediate investment in the Arctic region of the United States to enable the responsible                                
07 development of resources, foster maritime commerce, safeguard the well-being of Arctic                                  
08 residents and ecosystems, facilitate emergency and disaster preparedness and response, and                              
09 protect United States sovereignty; and                                                                                  
10       WHEREAS the Alaska Northern Waters Task Force, established in 2010,                                             
11 recommends that the Alaska State Legislature encourage the federal government to establish a                            
12 United States Coast Guard base in the Arctic and to fund the construction of additional                                 
13 icebreakers and ice-capable vessels for the United States fleet; and                                                    
14       WHEREAS, as Northern sea routes open and foreign shippers set their sights on                                 
15 Asian markets, international shipping of oil and gas and other potentially hazardous cargo                              
16 through the Bering Strait is rapidly increasing; and                                                                    
17       WHEREAS the United States and its trading partners could reap economic benefits                                 
18 from accessing Northern sea routes with the help of modern, fully equipped icebreakers; and                             
19       WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard has 11 statutory missions, including                                      
20 search and rescue, marine safety, ports, waterways, and coastal security, drug interdiction,                            
21 migrant interdiction, defense readiness, living marine resources, marine environmental                                  
22 protection, aids to navigation, ice operations, and other law enforcement; and                                          
23       WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard's missions relate to protecting the public,                               
24 the environment, and United States economic interests in the nation's ports and waterways,                              
25 along the coast, on international waters, and in any maritime region, as required for national                          
26 security; and                                                                                                           
27       WHEREAS the National Contingency Plan further requires the United States Coast                                  
28 Guard to oversee oil spill planning and preparedness in coastal waters and to supervise oil                             
29 spill response; and                                                                                                     
30       WHEREAS the United States Congress and the Administration are mandated by                                       
31 numerous laws and policies to maintain icebreaking operations; and                                                      

01       WHEREAS those mandates include President Franklin D. Roosevelt's 1936                                           
02 Executive Order 7521, which requires the United States Coast Guard to keep channels and                                 
03 harbors open to navigation by means of icebreaking operations; the Arctic Research Policy                               
04 Act of 1984, which directs the United States Office of Management and Budget to build and                               
05 deploy icebreakers and allocate funds necessary to support icebreaking operations; the Coast                            
06 Guard Authorization Act of 2010, which requires the United States Coast Guard to promote                                
07 safe maritime navigation by means of icebreaking where necessary, feasible, and effective;                              
08 and the 2011 Unified Command Plan, which sets new boundaries and responsibilities for the                               
09 United States combatant commands, and directed the United States Northern Command to                                    
10 take the lead in advocating for new resources in the Arctic; and                                                        
11       WHEREAS the binding Arctic Search and Rescue Agreement signed by the eight                                      
12 Arctic nations at the Arctic Council in May 2011 commits the United States to search and                                
13 rescue response within the Arctic sector of the United States, including waters north of                                
14 Alaska, Bristol Bay, and the Bering Sea; and                                                                            
15       WHEREAS the promise to provide search and rescue operations in the Arctic sector                                
16 of the United States is compromised without sufficient icebreakers and other United States                              
17 Coast Guard assets; and                                                                                                 
18       WHEREAS the January 2012 delivery of fuel to Nome, Alaska, by the Russian fuel                                  
19 tanker Renda, escorted by the United States Coast Guard's only polar class icebreaker, Healy,                           
20 emphasized the need for increased United States icebreaker presence in the Arctic; and                                  
21       WHEREAS, at present, the United States has only one polar class icebreaker in                                 
22 service, the United States Coast Guard Cutter Healy, a vessel designed for scientific research                          
23 and response operations; and                                                                                            
24       WHEREAS a second polar class icebreaker, the United States Coast Guard Cutter                                   
25 Polar Star, is undergoing extensive repairs in Seattle, Washington, and is scheduled to return                          
26 to service in 2013, at which time it is predicted it should function effectively for only another                       
27 seven to 10 years; and                                                                                                  
28       WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star's sister ship, the United                               
29 States Coast Guard Cutter Polar Sea, was taken out of service in 2011; and                                              
30       WHEREAS Russia has a fleet of eight nuclear-powered icebreakers; China has one                                  
31 large icebreaking research ship supporting science in both polar regions and is building a                              

01 second, smaller but more powerful icebreaking research ship that is scheduled to be ready in                            
02 2013; Canada has committed $38,000,000,000 to a 30-year plan to build additional                                        
03 icebreakers and other ice-strengthened ships; and Sweden, Finland, South Korea, and Japan                               
04 have added icebreakers to their fleets; and                                                                             
05       WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard estimates that designing and constructing                                 
06 a new polar class ice breaker will take seven to 10 years; and                                                          
07       WHEREAS having a sufficient number of ice-capable vessels, including shallow-                                   
08 draft vessels with icebreaking capability, is vital for the United States Coast Guard to fulfill                        
09 its expanding mission in the Arctic; and                                                                                
10       WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard has very limited Arctic emergency                                         
11 response capabilities and no permanent bases near the Bering Strait chokepoint or on Alaska's                           
12 North Slope to support the United States Coast Guard operations; and                                                    
13       WHEREAS the most northern United States Coast Guard base in the United States in                                
14 Kodiak, Alaska, is more than 1,000 miles from possible Chukchi Sea drilling sites and nearly                            
15 as far from existing Arctic shipping lanes in the Bering Strait, and that distance causes                               
16 untenable logistical problems that negatively affect response times and capabilities; and                               
17       WHEREAS the United States Coast Guard should have a greater overall presence in                                 
18 the Arctic, with the ability to stage assets closer to future shipping, oil and gas drilling, and                       
19 commercial fishing activities;                                                                                          
20       BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States                                        
21 Congress and the Administration to fund all facilities and vessels necessary to enable the                              
22 United States Coast Guard to fulfill its Arctic missions, including icebreakers and an Arctic                           
23 Coast Guard base; and be it                                                                                             
24       FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States                                      
25 Congress and the Administration to consider all options to finance the refurbishment of our                             
26 current polar class icebreakers, the acquisition of new icebreakers, and the long-term                                  
27 maintenance funding of the United States Coast Guard icebreaker fleet and Arctic facilities.                            
28       COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of                             
29 the United States; the Honorable Hillary Rodham Clinton, United States Secretary of State;                              
30 the Honorable Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian                                     
31 Federation; the Honorable Erkki Tuomioja, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Finland; the                                  

01 Honorable Carl Bildt, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Sweden; the Honorable Jonas Gahr                                  
02 Støre, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway; the Honorable John Baird, Minister of Foreign                             
03 Affairs of Canada; the Honorable Össur Skarphéðinsson, Minister for Foreign Affairs and                                 
04 External Trade of Iceland; the Honorable Villy Søvndal, Minister for Foreign Affairs of                                 
05 Denmark; the Honorable Admiral Robert J. Papp, Commandant, United States Coast Guard;                                   
06 Ambassador David A. Balton, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Oceans and Fisheries, United                                 
07 States Department of State; Rear Admiral Thomas F. Ostebo, Commander, United States                                     
08 Seventeenth Coast Guard District; the Honorable Sean Parnell, Governor of Alaska; the                                   
09 Honorable Mead Treadwell, Lieutenant Governor of Alaska; the Honorable Lisa Murkowski                                   
10 and the Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S.                                         
11 Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress; and all other members of the                              
12 112th United States Congress.