SENATE RESOURCES COMMITTEE February 19, 1997 3:40 P.M. MEMBERS PRESENT Senator Lyda Green, Vice Chairman Senator Loren Leman Senator Bert Sharp Senator Robin Taylor Senator Georgianna Lincoln Senator John Torgerson MEMBERS ABSENT Senator Rick Halford, Chairman COMMITTEE CALENDAR HOUSE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 12 am Urging the Secretary of the Interior to conduct competitive oil and gas lease sales within the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. - MOVED SCSHJR 12(RES) FROM COMMITTEE CS FOR SENATE BILL NO. 22(STA) "An Act relating to qualifications for appointment to the Board of Game." - MOVED CSSB 22(RES) FROM COMMITTEE PREVIOUS SENATE COMMITTEE ACTION HJR 12 - No previous action to record. SB 22 - See State Affairs minutes dated 1/23/97. WITNESS REGISTER Representative Joe Green State Capitol Bldg. Juneau, AK 99811-1182 POSITION STATEMENT: Sponsor of HJR 12. Wayne Regelin, Director Division of Wildlife Conservation Department of Fish and Game P.O. Box 25526 Juneau, AK 99802-5526 POSITION STATEMENT: Commented on SB 22. ACTION NARRATIVE TAPE 97-12, SIDE A Number 001 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. SB 22 BOARD OF GAME QUALIFICATIONS  VICE CHAIRMAN GREEN announced SB 22 to be up for consideration. SENATOR SHARP , sponsor, said it amends the required qualifications for persons who may be appointed to the Board of Game by adding the requirements that the applicant must have held an Alaska hunting or trapping license or a permanent I.D. card of being over 60 years of age during each of the five years immediately preceding the appointment to the Board. This added requirement would provide improved assurance of interest fostered by past involvement in legal utilization of the game resource and understanding the dynamics of arctic game resource management. Several states have this license qualification requirement for appointment to their state wildlife boards. SB 22 has a $0 fiscal note from ADF&G. He thought there would still be a large pool of qualified applicants. SENATOR TAYLOR said part of the motivation for this is to make certain that that pool of Alaskans from which the Governor would select would at least have some peripheral contact with the resource they are regulating and would have some background to make certain that those uses that are protected in our constitution would be reflected in their previous life-style. Number 453 SENATOR LINCOLN said she supports the intent of the bill, but she is concerned with the five consecutive year standard . She asked what if someone were ill or missed getting their license one year, would they have to start out all over. Her second concern was that women might be precluded from being on the Board because they didn't actually have a license although they were involved in a hunt and they may be good members. SENATOR SHARP responded to her first concern saying that the five year period was selected because it's easier to document the records for the last five years. Beyond that the records are unreliable. He wanted it to be enough to where the nominee has demonstrated participation as a user of the resource. Number 512 MR. WAYNE REGELIN, Director, Division of Wildlife Conservation, said that he thought it was very appropriate for members of the Board of Game to be hunters and he thought most of them had been. Regarding the five year requirement, he said there are a lot of hunters who don't hunt every year, because they are sick or they are hunting in other states or countries once in a while. VICE CHAIRMAN GREEN asked if there were any regional requirements. MR. REGELIN answered that there were no requirements for geographic or any other reason. The statute says is that the Governor shall appoint members on the basis of interest in public affairs, good judgement, knowledge and ability, with a view to providing diversity of interests and points of view in membership. SENATOR TAYLOR asked if either of the Governor's recent appointees have met the qualifications if this law were in effect. MR. REGELIN replied he hadn't checked the records on those two people. Number 542 SENATOR TAYLOR moved to amend line 12 by deleting "each" and inserting "at least five" of the "previous seven years." SENATOR SHARP asked if records were available for seven years. MR. REGELIN answered that they are. SENATOR SHARP said he would accept that amendment. There were no objections and the amendment was adopted. SENATOR TAYLOR asked if he knew of the gender mix for licenses. MR. REGELIN said they had a figure of about 10,000 women, but he would check it out. SENATOR TAYLOR asked how many licenses they normally issue in a given year. MR. REGELIN replied 88,600 licenses were sold last year. SENATOR TAYLOR moved to pass CSSB 22am(RES) from committee with individual recommendations. There were no objections and it was so ordered. Number 587