HJR 34: Supporting oil and gas leasing and development within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
00 HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 34 01 Supporting oil and gas leasing and development within the National Petroleum Reserve 02 in Alaska. 03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 WHEREAS, in 1923, President Warren G. Harding issued an Executive Order 05 establishing Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 on the North Slope region to provide a potential 06 supply of oil for the United States Navy; and 07 WHEREAS 42 U.S.C. 6501 (Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976) 08 redesignated Naval Petroleum Reserve No. 4 as the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska 09 and transferred responsibility for its administration to the Secretary of the Interior; and 10 WHEREAS the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska encompasses 23,500,000 11 acres, with boundaries extending south from Icy Cape to the drainage divide of the Brooks 12 Range, then following the divide eastward to 156 degrees west longitude, then north to the 13 Colville River, and following the Colville River downstream to its mouth; and 14 WHEREAS the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska falls entirely within the 15 boundary of the North Slope Borough and includes the communities of Atqasuk, Nuiqsut,
01 Utqiagvik, and Wainwright; and 02 WHEREAS, in 2017, the United States Geological Survey estimated there to be 03 8,700,000,000 barrels of recoverable oil and 25,000,000,000,000 cubic feet of recoverable gas 04 reserves in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska; and 05 WHEREAS the 2020 National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Integrated Activity Plan 06 and Environmental Impact Statement estimates potential annual government revenue, 07 including local, state, and federal taxes and royalties, of $730,000,000 to $4,750,000,000 from 08 oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska; and 09 WHEREAS the 2020 National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Integrated Activity Plan 10 and Environmental Impact Statement estimates that the exploration, development, and 11 production of oil and gas in the Reserve could generate 3,600 direct jobs and 2,750 indirect 12 jobs annually over a period of 30 years; and 13 WHEREAS state royalties from oil and gas development in the National Petroleum 14 Reserve in Alaska are allocated to the NPR-A Impact Mitigation Fund, which is used to 15 provide the local communities of Anaktuvuk Pass, Atqasuk, Nuiqsut, Wainwright, Utqiagvik, 16 and the North Slope Borough with grants to mitigate impacts related to oil and gas 17 development; and 18 WHEREAS, in January of 2022, the Department of the Interior took action that would 19 effectively revert management of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska to the 2013 20 Integrated Activity Plan, removing 7,000,000 acres of the National Petroleum Reserve in 21 Alaska from potential oil and gas development; and 22 WHEREAS the 2020 National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska Integrated Activity Plan 23 was developed in partnership with the North Slope Borough and in consultation with North 24 Slope tribes and Alaska Native corporations and it included provisions that would have 25 ensured future economic development opportunities for the North Slope region, allowed for 26 community infrastructure needs to be considered in the National Petroleum Reserve in 27 Alaska, and required that areas identified by local and Alaska Native entities be excluded 28 from future leasing; and 29 WHEREAS the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, the Inupiat Community of the 30 Arctic Slope, and the North Slope Borough are all united in opposition to the Department of 31 the Interior's reversion from the 2020 NPR-A Integrated Activity Plan to the 2013 NPR-A
01 Integrated Activity Plan and have expressed concern that this reversion diminishes Alaska 02 Native self-determination by ignoring the needs, concerns, and input of the local people who 03 live, work, and subsist in and around the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska; and 04 WHEREAS oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska has 05 the potential to extend the life of the Trans Alaska Pipeline System and increase throughput, 06 which has declined from a peak of 2,033,000 average barrels of oil a day in 1988 to 477,800 07 average barrels of oil a day in 2021; and 08 WHEREAS the failure of the Department of the Interior to consult with the Inupiat 09 Community of the Arctic Slope and the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation before taking 10 sweeping action violates Executive Order 13175: Consultation and Coordination with Indian 11 Tribal Governments; and 12 WHEREAS oil and gas development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska 13 would strengthen national security and provide long-lasting benefits to the national economy 14 by creating thousands of jobs nationwide, generating billions of dollars in government 15 revenue, providing affordable energy to American consumers, and decreasing dependence on 16 foreign energy; and 17 WHEREAS safe and responsible oil and gas exploration, development, and 18 production has been demonstrated by over 50 years of activity on the North Slope region 19 without adverse effects on the environment or wildlife populations; 20 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 21 Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, to maximize the area available for 22 oil and gas leasing and development within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska while 23 conserving and protecting valued fish, wildlife, subsistence, and cultural resources; and be it 24 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature urges the United States 25 Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, when considering management 26 activities related to the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, to take into account the long 27 history of safe and responsible oil and gas development on the North Slope region and the 28 enormous benefits development of oil and gas resources in the National Petroleum Reserve in 29 Alaska would bring to local communities, tribal governments, the state, and the nation. 30 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Joseph R. Biden, President 31 of the United States; the Honorable Kamala D. Harris, Vice President of the United States and
01 President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable Deb Haaland, United States Secretary of the 02 Interior; the Honorable Tracy Stone-Manning, Director, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. 03 Department of the Interior; Thomas Heinlein, Acting Alaska State Director, Bureau of Land 04 Management, U.S. Department of the Interior; and the Honorable Lisa Murkowski and the 05 Honorable Dan Sullivan, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, 06 members of the Alaska delegation in Congress.