HJR 12: Endorsing, in principle, legislation authorizing oil and gas leasing, exploration, and development on the coastal plain within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, provided the legislation does not contain a provision decreasing this state's royalty.
00HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 12 01 Endorsing, in principle, legislation authorizing oil and gas leasing, exploration, and 02 development on the coastal plain within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 03 provided the legislation does not contain a provision decreasing this state's royalty. 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 WHEREAS the Alaska State Legislature has previously recognized the importance of 06 reasonable exploration and development of the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife 07 Refuge (ANWR) and has adopted resolutions supporting federal legislation to authorize oil and 08 gas leasing, exploration, and development on the coastal plain; and 09 WHEREAS the Alaska Statehood Act contains a binding contract with Alaska that the 10 state will receive 90 percent of all oil, gas, and mineral royalties from federal land in Alaska; 11 and 12 WHEREAS the federal government has both a moral and a legal obligation to honor 13 all statehood acts; and 14 WHEREAS the people of the State of Alaska relied on that royalty sharing provision
01 in ratifying the Alaska Statehood Act; and 02 WHEREAS the United States Congress included that royalty sharing provision in the 03 compact because Alaska, unlike all other public land states, was not covered by the federal 04 Reclamation Act and derived no benefits from that Act; and 05 WHEREAS the Congress also intended in the Alaska Statehood Act to compensate 06 Alaska for the large federal land reservations that had the effect of stifling beneficial economic 07 development; and 08 WHEREAS the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge comprises a core 09 calving ground of the Porcupine Caribou herd; and 10 WHEREAS the Gwich'in Athabascan Indians of northeastern Alaska and northwestern 11 Canada have relied on caribou for subsistence for thousands of years, and continue to subsist 12 on the Porcupine Caribou herd, a herd that is essential to meet the nutritional, cultural, and 13 spiritual needs of the Gwich'in people; and 14 WHEREAS 65 percent of the remote communities in Alaska still lack piped water and 15 other essential services and the people of Alaska rely on that royalty sharing provision to 16 address this and other grave health, social, and economic problems; and 17 WHEREAS the President's National Energy Plan included provisions allocating 100 18 percent of any revenue derived from leasing, exploration, and development of the coastal plain 19 of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the federal government, in violation of the Alaska 20 Statehood Act; and 21 WHEREAS the Congress considered other legislation that authorized oil and gas 22 leasing in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that 23 (1) provided that only 50 percent of royalty revenue from the wildlife refuge 24 would be shared with Alaska, and 25 (2) contained so called "blackmail clauses" that would void any lease sale 26 should the revenue division and sharing provisions be successfully challenged in court; and 27 WHEREAS the "blackmail clauses" infringe on our state's constitutional rights 28 because they penalize Alaska if it tries to protect its rights under the Statehood Act; 29 BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that the Legislature supports in 30 principle federal legislation authorizing oil and gas leasing, exploration, and development on 31 the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but opposes any unilateral reductions
01 in royalty revenue from that exploration and development and any attempts by the Congress -or the President to coerce 02 the State of Alaska into accepting less than was promised at 03 statehood; and be it 04 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Congress join with the state in providing strict 05 standards for the protection of land, water, and wildlife resources, including the habitat of the 06 Porcupine Caribou herd, during the exploration and development of the coastal plain of the 07 Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 08 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable George Bush, President of 09 the United States; the Honorable Dan Quayle, Vice-President of the United States and 10 president of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Thomas S. Foley, Speaker of the U.S. House of 11 Representatives; the Honorable George Mitchell, U.S. Senate Majority Leader; the Honorable 12 J. Bennett Johnston, Chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources; the 13 Honorable George Miller, Chair of the House Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs; the 14 Honorable Manuel Lujan, Jr., Secretary of the Interior; the Honorable Ted Stevens and the 15 Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. 16 Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress; and to the governors and the 17 presiding officers of the houses of the legislatures of each of our sister states.