00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 57                                                                                           
01 Relating to conveyance of land in the Dalton Highway corridor to the State of                                           
02 Alaska.                                                                                                                 
03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA:                                                               
04  WHEREAS, under Public Land Order 5150, as amended, the Department of the                                               
05 Interior withdrew public land in Alaska for a utility and transportation corridor; and                                  
06  WHEREAS the corridor established by Public Land Order 5150, as amended, contains                                       
07 the state-owned and maintained Dalton Highway and is the sole link between the North Slope                              
08 of Alaska and the Interior of Alaska; and                                                                               
09  WHEREAS all of the remaining land between the North Slope and the Interior of                                          
10 Alaska have been withdrawn for national parks and wildlife refuges; and                                                 
11  WHEREAS the State of Alaska derives over 80 percent of its revenue from oil located                                    
12 on the North Slope and shipped by a pipeline traversing the corridor; and                                               
13  WHEREAS  the proposed trans-Alaska gas pipeline will also traverse land within the                                     
14 corridor; and                                                                                                           
01  WHEREAS the Department of the Interior has gradually conveyed to the State of                                          
02 Alaska over half of the land originally withdrawn by Public Land Order 5150; and                                        
03  WHEREAS the present land pattern within the corridor is a patchwork of federal land                                    
04 and state land; and                                                                                                     
05  WHEREAS the efficient and effective management of isolated tracts of land is                                           
06 difficult and expensive for both the state and federal governments; and                                                 
07  WHEREAS the State of Alaska has selected the remaining federal lands within the                                        
08 corridor for state ownership under the Alaska Statehood Act;                                                            
09  BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the                                             
10 Department of the Interior to revoke Public Land Order 5150, as amended, and other relevant                             
11 public land orders that withdrew land within the utility and transportation corridor from state                         
12 selection under the Alaska Statehood Act and to convey the remaining federal lands within                               
13 the corridor to the State of Alaska.                                                                                    
14  COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the                                
15 United States; the Honorable Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior;                           
16 and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and                                  
17 the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in                                       
18 Congress.