SJR 9: Urging the United States Congress to pass legislation to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, to oil and gas exploration, development, and production.
00SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 9 01 Urging the United States Congress to pass legislation to open the coastal plain 02 of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska, to oil and gas exploration, 03 development, and production. 04 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 05 WHEREAS, in sec. 1002 of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act 06 (ANILCA), the United States Congress reserved the right to permit further oil and gas 07 exploration, development, and production within the coastal plain of the Arctic National 08 Wildlife Refuge, Alaska; and 09 WHEREAS the oil industry, the state, and the United States Department of the Interior 10 consider the coastal plain to have the highest potential for discovery of very large oil and gas 11 accumulations on the continent of North America, estimated to be as much as 10,000,000,000 12 barrels of recoverable oil; and 13 WHEREAS the residents of the North Slope Borough, within which the coastal plain 14 is located, are supportive of development in the "1002 study area"; and
01 WHEREAS oil and gas exploration and development of the coastal plain of the refuge 02 and adjacent land could result in major discoveries that would reduce our nation's future need 03 for imported oil, help balance the nation's trade deficit, and significantly increase the nation's 04 security; and 05 WHEREAS demand for oil consumed in the United States rose by 2.5 percent in the 06 past year and domestic crude production continued to fall to 6,460,000 barrels per day; 07 consequently, the percentage of oil imported from foreign sources increased to more than 52 08 percent, and the price of imported oil increased over 35 percent in the year; and 09 WHEREAS development of oil at Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk, Endicott, Lisburne, and 10 Milne Point has resulted in thousands of jobs throughout the United States, and projected job 11 creation as a result of coastal plain oil development will have a positive effect in all 50 states; 12 and 13 WHEREAS Prudhoe Bay production is declining by approximately 10 percent a year; 14 and 15 WHEREAS, while new oil field developments on the North Slope of Alaska, such as 16 Alpine, Badami and West Sak, may slow or temporarily stop the decline in production, only 17 giant coastal plain fields have the theoretical capability of increasing the production volume 18 of Alaska oil to a significant degree; and 19 WHEREAS opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge now 20 allows sufficient time for planning environmental safeguards, development, and national 21 security review; and 22 WHEREAS the oil and gas industry and related state employment have been severely 23 affected by reduced oil and gas activity, and the reduction in industry investment and 24 employment has broad implications for the state's work force and the entire state economy; 25 and 26 WHEREAS the 1,500,000-acre coastal plain of the refuge comprises only eight percent 27 of the 19,000,000-acre refuge, and the development of the oil and gas reserves in the refuge's 28 coastal plain would affect an area of only 2,000 to 7,000 acres, which is less than one-half of 29 one percent of the area of the coastal plain; and 30 WHEREAS 8,000,000 of the 19,000,000 acres of the refuge have already been set 31 aside as wilderness; and
01 WHEREAS the oil industry has shown at Prudhoe Bay, as well as at other locations 02 along the Arctic coastal plain, that it can safely conduct oil and gas activity without adversely 03 affecting the environment or wildlife populations; and 04 WHEREAS the oil industry is using innovative technology and environmental 05 practices in the new field developments at Alpine and North Star, and those techniques are 06 directly applicable to operating on the coastal plain and would enhance environmental 07 protection beyond traditionally high standards; and 08 BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that the Congress of the United 09 States is urged to pass legislation to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife 10 Refuge, Alaska, to oil and gas exploration, development, and production; and be it 11 FURTHER RESOLVED that that activity be conducted in a manner that protects the 12 environment and uses the state's work force to the maximum extent possible. 13 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Bill Clinton, President of the 14 United States; the Honorable Al Gore, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and president 15 of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Bruce Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior; the Honorable Newt 16 Gingrich, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Trent Lott, Majority 17 Leader of the U.S. Senate; to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, 18 U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska 19 delegation in Congress; and to all other members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of 20 Representatives serving in the 105th United States Congress.