SJR 5: Urging the United States Congress to reauthorize the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act.
00 SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 5 01 Urging the United States Congress to reauthorize the Methane Hydrate Research and 02 Development Act. 03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 WHEREAS 59 billion cubic feet a day of natural gas are consumed daily in the 05 United States; and 06 WHEREAS the Energy Information Administration estimates that domestic demand 07 for natural gas will increase to 77 billion cubic feet a day by 2015 and to 84 billion cubic feet 08 a day by 2025; and 09 WHEREAS Alaska has 35 trillion cubic feet of proven reserves of natural gas on the 10 North Slope; and 11 WHEREAS the United States Geological Survey estimates Alaska's onshore natural 12 gas hydrates in place at 590 trillion cubic feet, 40 to 100 trillion cubic feet of which are in 13 place in the central portion of the North Slope in close proximity to or underlying existing 14 producing fields, and an additional 32,375 trillion cubic feet of gas hydrates are in the 15 Beaufort Sea and Chukchi Sea offshore; and 16 WHEREAS none of the completed gas hydrate energy assessments has predicted how
01 much gas could actually be produced from the known gas hydrate accumulations in northern 02 Alaska; and 03 WHEREAS the Alaska North Slope is one of the most promising places in North 04 America to determine the resource potential of gas hydrates because of existing infrastructure, 05 which will prove vital in supporting the emerging technologies required to assess commercial 06 viability of gas hydrates; and 07 WHEREAS the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000, P.L. 106 - 08 193, was enacted to determine whether or not gas hydrates could become a significant source 09 of natural gas in the future; the Act's research and development provisions cease to be 10 effective in September 2005; and 11 WHEREAS production models of gas-hydrate-bearing reservoirs within prospects 12 interpreted from seismic and well data in the Milne Point areas suggest that sustained 13 production rates of several million cubic feet of gas a day can be achieved, although these 14 models are unverified by field testing; and 15 WHEREAS the state is negotiating with project sponsors to construct a natural gas 16 pipeline from the North Slope to markets in Canada and the lower 48 states; and 17 WHEREAS the large quantities of hydrates that underlie the existing Kuparuk River, 18 Milne Point, and Prudhoe Bay fields could, in themselves, remove all potential reserve risk 19 through the year 2035 and beyond for an Alaska natural gas pipeline project transporting 4.5 20 billion cubic feet a day; and 21 WHEREAS reducing reserve risk will have a positive effect on project financing and 22 potentially result in a lower tariff, which in turn could lead to increased exploration and early 23 expansion of the Alaska natural gas pipeline; 24 BE IT RESOLVED by the Alaska State Legislature that the Congress of the United 25 States is urged to reauthorize the Methane Hydrate Research and Development Act of 2000 to 26 fund research and field testing under that Act; and be it 27 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Act be reauthorized for a period of five years, with 28 appropriations of not less that $70,000,000 over five years. 29 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable George W. Bush, President 30 of the United States; the Honorable Richard B. Cheney, Vice-President of the United States 31 and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Gale Norton, United States Secretary of the
01 Interior; the Honorable Samuel W. Bodman, United States Secretary of Energy designee; the 02 Honorable J. Dennis Hastert, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable 03 Bill Frist, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Joe Barton, Chair of the U.S. 04 House Energy and Commerce Committee; the Honorable Pete Domenici, Chair of the U.S. 05 Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources; the Honorable Ted Stevens and the 06 Honorable Lisa Murkowski, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. 07 Representative, members of the Alaska delegation in Congress; and, by electronic 08 transmission, to all other members of the U.S. Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives 09 serving in the 109th United States Congress.