HJR 12 LEASES IN NATL PETROLEUM RESERVE  VICE CHAIRMAN GREEN called the Senate Resources Committee me to order at 3:40 p.m. and announced HJR 12 to be up for consideration. REPRESENTATIVE JOE GREEN , sponsor of HJR 12, said it urges the federal government to continue with what they already have the right to do which is to resume leasing in the Arctic Petroleum Reserve. Historically, in 1923 President Harding established Naval Petroleum Reserve 4 along with three others in the lower 48 because it seemed prudent to have a ready supply of petroleum to power our naval warships. Shortly after this there were lots of discoveries and until the early war years of WWII there was practically no activity. In 1943 activity was renewed and by the time of the Korean War about 45 shallow wells had been drilled along with 36 core tests. In that process three deposits of oil and three separate deposits of gas were found, but none large enough to be considered commercial. The bottom line is that there are still no commercial finds of oil and gas in the Reserve. He directed their attention to a map of the wells that are scattered all over the reserve. There are none west of Nuiqsut or the Colville Delta which is the region of great concern now because of the alpine discovery announced by ARCO earlier this year. The indication is very strong that the accumulation either extends across the river or that there may be ancillary oil accumulations with major finds. In the interests of trying to develop the field to its fullest, it seems only prudent that there would be leases granted by the government to interested oil companies. The Governor has encouraged the federal administration to open NPRA and Secretary Babbit has indicated this might be a good thing to do. REPRESENTATIVE GREEN said he had a meeting with the federal government on whether there would be a need for a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) or just an update of the existing EIS that was done in 1982. The BLM has indicated an update that might take 18 months. He is concerned that if it is just an update of an existing EIS, why it would take 18 months. He thought we should make sure they are going to honor their commitment to allow leasing there. He thought HJR 12 sends a unified message from the State of Alaska saying we are interested in resuming leasing there and developing. He said we are doing this is in addition to, not instead of, ANWR. Number 144 SENATOR LINCOLN said she was not trying to slow down this legislation, but she wanted to add a Further Resolve clause stating that "the activity be conducted in a manner that protects the environment and uses the State's workforce to the maximum extent possible." REPRESENTATIVE GREEN said he had no objection to doing that. SENATOR LINCOLN said this was the same language used in Senator Pearce's legislation and moved that language as an amendment. SENATOR TAYLOR objected for purposes of discussion because he thought it was done before as a WHEREAS clause. He said he appreciates the concerns, but everytime they talk about making mud in this State, we have to have some language claiming to the world that we're going to be pure in the way we do it. He didn't know of any experiences up there in the last 15 - 20 years where environmental concerns haven't been the overriding concern. He didn't want to send any false hope in a resolution form that would indicate that we could somehow force the hiring of Alaskans. SENATOR LINCOLN said this is the exact language proposed by Senator Pearce in her resolution that was adopted. SENATOR TAYLOR said he would withdraw his objection. SENATOR LEMAN said the amendment Senator Lincoln was referring to was a WHEREAS clause which he supported in the other resolution and he would suggest putting it in as the last WHEREAS. REPRESENTATIVE GREEN said having it as a WHEREAS would remove the possibility of some bureaucrats in Washington looking at this saying they had to put this in as a Resolve because they haven't been doing it in the past. He thought we should make every effort to let them know we have been doing this all along. SENATOR TORGERSON said he had the same question on the second FURTHER RESOLVE - if that shouldn't be a WHEREAS because it looks like it's directed at the legislature. SENATOR LEMAN moved to adopt the amendment to the amendment. VICE- CHAIRMAN GREEN said she opposed the amendment and asked Representative Green what he would like to do. There was some confusion as the committee discovered they were referencing the wrong version of HJR 12. They received the corrected version, HJR 12am and SENATOR LINCOLN suggested this wording, "WHEREAS exploration and development shall be conducted in a manner consistent with the State's on-going commitment to protecting the environment and utilizing its workforce to the maximum extent possible; and." She, then, withdrew her original amendment and offered the new language as an amendment. SENATOR LEMAN objected to change "shall" to "will" so they wouldn't be commanding themselves to do something. He removed his objection. VICE CHAIRMAN GREEN objected to make sure that all the verbs were in agreement. SENATOR TAYLOR moved to pass HJR 12 am(RES) from committee with individual recommendations and asked for unanimous consent. There were no objections and it was so ordered.