HJR 18: Urging the United States Congress to refrain from passing legislation that designates land in Area 1002 of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness.
00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 18 01 Urging the United States Congress to refrain from passing legislation that designates 02 land in Area 1002 of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness. 03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 WHEREAS the United States Department of the Interior estimates that there may be 05 10,000,000,000 recoverable barrels of oil and significant quantities of natural gas in the Arctic 06 National Wildlife Refuge; and 07 WHEREAS development of the oil reserves in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 08 would reduce the dependence of the United States on unstable sources of foreign oil and 09 would make the economy of the United States stronger and more stable; and 10 WHEREAS the economy of the United States would suffer further if the large natural 11 gas resources in Area 1002 of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge are not available for 12 transportation in the proposed Alaska natural gas pipeline; and 13 WHEREAS clean-burning natural gas delivered by way of the proposed Alaska 14 natural gas pipeline could be used as an environmentally friendly energy source for homes 15 and businesses in the lower 48 states for decades to come; and 16 WHEREAS new technology and environmental practices used by the oil and gas
01 industry provide for efficient production and environmental protection; and 02 WHEREAS 8,900,000 acres of the 19,000,000 acres in the Arctic National Wildlife 03 Refuge are already designated as wilderness areas; and 04 WHEREAS the United States Congress, in 16 U.S.C. 3121 (sec. 1002 of the Alaska 05 National Interest Lands Conservation Act), authorized oil and gas exploratory activity within 06 the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reserved the right to enact future 07 laws to allow for entry into and development of oil and gas resources in the Arctic National 08 Wildlife Refuge; 09 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 10 Congress to preserve its right to enact a law providing for the environmentally responsible 11 exploration and development of oil and gas resources in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 12 by not passing any legislation that designates land in Area 1002 of the Arctic National 13 Wildlife Refuge as wilderness. 14 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of 15 the United States; the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, Jr., Vice-President of the United States and 16 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Ken Salazar, United States Secretary of the 17 Interior; the Honorable Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the 18 Honorable John Boehner, Minority Leader of the U.S. House of Representatives; the 19 Honorable Harry Reid, Majority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Mitch McConnell, 20 Minority Leader of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Jeff Bingaman, Chair of the Energy and 21 Natural Resources Committee of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the 22 Honorable Mark Begich, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, 23 members of the Alaska delegation in Congress; and all other members of the 111th United 24 States Congress.