Issue Position: Energy

Issue Position

As the Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senator Lisa Murkowski is one of the foremost experts on energy policy in Congress. While a strong supporter and sponsor of energy efficiency efforts and the development of alternative energy technology, she believes even more strongly in the importance of developing the nation's conventional energy resources in order to curb increases in energy prices, protect the nation's energy security, reduce the trade deficit and prevent the export of U.S. jobs overseas.

Senator Murkowski is a proponent of a national energy policy that produces as much domestic energy -- of all types -- as safely as possible. While a strong economy will continue to use many millions of barrels of oil each day for many decades to come, Senator Murkowski knows that it is better both for the economy and the environment to meet as much of the nation's energy needs as possible with domestic production. While oil, natural gas, coal and nuclear power drive the engine of the economy today and are therefore critical to sustaining the nation's high standard of living, investment in renewable and alternative forms of energy are equally important to the country's energy future.

Senator Murkowski has thrown her support behind research to come up with better, cleaner ways to use the nation's existing coal reserves. She's supported research to unlock the power of methane hydrates and continued investment in a wide range of renewable energy resources, including wind, geothermal, conventional hydroelectric and ocean hydrokinetic energy, solar, biomass and landfill gas energy.

In order to make the huge investments needed to ensure the United States remains at the forefront of developing new energy technologies, the nation's and especially Alaska's, untapped oil and gas reserves must be accessed and brought to market. The hundreds of billions of dollars in federal revenues this would produce -- with no added tax burden on American families -- could be used to pay down the federal debt and reinvest in new energy technologies.

Along these lines, Senator Murkowski has introduced legislation to tap the estimated 10.4 billion barrels of oil and 8.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR); promote development of the energy resources found on America's outer continental shelf by expanding federal revenue sharing with coastal states; promote construction of a natural gas pipeline connecting Alaska's North Slope with Lower 48 energy markets; and promote the research and development of renewable energy.

Senator Murkowski's approach to energy policy was shaped by her upbringing in Alaska, where oil and gas production form the backbone of the state's economy. Petroleum development in Alaska accounts for more than 42,000 jobs -- a third of the state's employment and a third of its gross state product. Investment in Alaska's North Slope accounts for 60 percent of the state's private investment and generates nearly 90 percent of the state's general fund revenues. Oil and gas production have put $141 billion in the state's treasury in the past four decades and created the $40 billion Alaska Permanent Fund, which has paid each Alaskan some $38,000 in dividends in today's dollars since its creation in 1982.

In addition to petroleum, Alaska is rich in alternative energy opportunities, including harnessing the power of its rushing rivers, ocean tides and howling winds. Senator Murkowski has repeatedly said that Alaska should be a national leader in the production of energy from renewable sources -- just as it is for conventional oil and gas -- and has championed legislation to expand the use of hydropower, biomass, geothermal, marine hydrokinetic -- so-called ocean energy -- and wind across the state.

While energy resources are abundant, the cost of energy in Alaska is exorbitant. In some areas of the state, residents are spending nearly 50 percent of their income on energy -- more than ten times the national average. Senator Murkowski believes such high prices mean that finding ways to reduce energy costs is one of the most important challenges facing the federal government.

In early 2013 the Senator crafted a blueprint for a new national energy policy, Energy 20/20. This blueprint gives a detailed picture of the nation's energy outlook with extensive recommendations on how America should fashion its future energy policies.

Natural Gas

Alaska has 35 trillion cubic feet of natural gas ready to go to market from the Prudhoe Bay fields, gas that may be worth well over $150 billion. It is also expected that another 150 trillion to 200 trillion cubic feet of conventional gas can be found under the ground and oceans of northern Alaska, gas that could spur petrochemical development and meet Alaska's energy needs for decades into the future. Thus, Senator Murkowski believes it is vital that Alaska redouble its efforts to get that gas to market as quickly as possible before alternative technologies, such as shale gas in the Lower 48 or liquefied natural gas from elsewhere in the world fills the niche for Alaska's gas.

The Senator continues to look for ways that the federal government can aid construction of a large diameter gas line to move North Slope gas to the Lower 48 States.

In 2004 the Senator sponsored and won approval of an $18 billion federal loan guarantee (plus inflation) to help pay for the construction of a gas line and $750 million of tax subsidies to help defray the cost of installing the actual pipeline and of building a North Slope gas conditioning plant. The bill also provided for expedited permitting and accelerated court reviews and established a Federal Office of Pipeline Coordinator to oversee construction of any future line.

In 2007, Senator Murkowski provided the Office of Pipeline Coordinator with greater flexibility to hire staff more quickly and gain funds to pay for oversight of the pipeline.

For most of 2012 and 2013 the Senator has been working to attract Asian buyers for liquefied natural gas (LNG) to aid efforts by North Slope producers to shift to a $45 billion to $65 billion export project for Alaska gas. She has visited with Japan and other Pacific Rim countries to try and attract buyers to Alaska.

On May 23, 2013 the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hosted a roundtable on the best practices for the development of the nation's vast shale gas resources. Senator Murkowski reiterated that she supports a strong state-based approach to regulating natural gas development to ensure that natural gas continues to be an abundant, affordable, and clean energy source. During the roundtable, Senator Murkowski said "This resource is too important to our future economic development and energy security to move forward in any other way."

Oil Development

Senator Murkowski is a leader in efforts to help develop Alaska's hydrocarbon potential. She stands ready to advance efforts to open a small part of the 1.5-million-acre Arctic coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and natural gas development.

In past years, the Senator has introduced legislation to allow surface development on 2,000 acres of the coastal plain. She also has introduced legislation to conversely bar permanent surface development of the coastal plain, first by utilizing directional drilling, followed by use of subsurface oil and gas technology.

Recently, the Senator has been busy preventing efforts to permanently lock up the coastal plain. She has been filing comments and working tirelessly to prevent the Obama Administration's pending land management plan for ANWR that preliminarily calls for expanding substantially wilderness in the refuge by over 10 million acres. Senator Murkowski has opposed finalization of the draft ANWR land plan, which was unveiled in 2012 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. She also has been opposing efforts by others, since early summer 2013, to have the Administration declare the coastal plain as wilderness, which could permanently block oil and gas development in the refuge.

The Senator has also fought changes to the Bureau of Land Management's (BLM) recently updated management plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The Senator, in formal comments on the plan in 2012, won changes to make it more likely that pipelines could be built across NPR-A, to move future onshore and offshore oil and gas discoveries to Prudhoe Bay for shipment on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System. She also argued against establishment of new wild and scenic river segments in NPR-A, which could have halted oil and gas exploration in the nation's largest petroleum reserve. In 2011, the Senator also pressed for, and won, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' approval for a permit allowing construction of a bridge across the Colville River. This is a key to allowing development of the first of several satellite oil fields (CD-5) in NPR-A in the Nuiqsut area. The Senator will continue to fight to make sure that oil and gas can be developed from NPR-A, while also protecting key wildlife habitat in the 23.7-million acre area.

In 2011, the Senator worked to transfer regulation authority for air emissions during Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas exploration and production efforts to the Department of the Interior from the Environmental Protection Agency -- a key to promoting oil and gas exploration and potential development in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas. The Senator was instrumental in helping Shell Oil to finally begin exploration drilling in the Chukchi Sea. While that drilling has been delayed due to permitting and equipment modifications, the Senator is hopeful that the permit issues will be solved and exploration will allowed in Arctic waters in the near future.

OCS and Revenue Sharing

On March 20, 2013, Senator Murkowski introduced the Fixing America's Inequities with Revenues (FAIR) Act of 2013 (S. 630) to encourage support for oil and gas development of the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) region off of northern Alaska. The legislation would share revenues from oil and gas development nationwide, including in Alaska, with coastal states, most impacted by such development. S. 630, specifically amends the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to require the Secretary of the Treasury to provide impacted states with up to 37.5 percent of all revenues derived from rentals, royalties, bonus bids, and other sums payable to the United States from energy development in the OCS.

Senator Murkowski believes S. 630, currently pending review in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, could be a major source of future income for Alaska when oil and gas production begins in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas. Alaska, which has two-thirds of America's OCS (with the Chukchi Sea holding an estimated 15 billion barrels of oil and 77 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and the Beaufort Sea holding an estimated 8 billion barrels of oil and 28 trillion cubic feet of natural gas), would finally share in up to 37.5 percent of total revenues and 50 percent of the revenues produced from renewable energy development within the State.

Senator Murkowski has also displayed her commitment to improving the nation's readiness to respond to offshore oil spills, working to promote safe deep-water drilling efforts in the Gulf of Mexico and elsewhere.

Minerals and Coal

Senator Murkowski is a big supporter of federal mineral development, including production of coal.

In 2005, the Senator co-sponsored legislation aimed at providing $200 million a year in aid for projects to utilize the nation's coal resources, with the aid especially intended to help construction of clean-coal gasification combined cycle power plants. Alaska, with an estimated 160 billion short tons of coal reserves, was intended to benefit from the bill.

In 2007 the Senator supported legislation to increase funding for carbon capture and sequestration research and demonstration projects to prevent carbon emissions from coal-fired power generation.

In 2009 she supported legislation to provide assistance for development of underground coal gasification technology, similar to that being proposed by CIRI Inc. for use in development of its Beluga coal field in Alaska.

The Senator continues to look for ways to expand aid for coal development. She is also fighting to get EPA to permit the reopening of the Healy Clean Coal Plant to provide up to 50 megawatts of electricity to the Fairbanks area. Golden Valley Electric Association won permission to reopen the long-closed plant under terms of its original Clean Air Act permit in fall 2012. The plant is expected to reopen in 2014.

The Senator is also working to gain support for legislation to aid the nation in production of critical minerals, and specifically to help with production of Rare Earth Elements (REEs).

Rural Energy

The high cost of fuel oil, used for home heating and power generation, continues to present tremendous challenges to those living in Alaska's rural communities. Governments, tribal offices, schools, hospitals, health clinics, corporations and families are again being squeezed by the rising cost of fuel.

The Senator knows it is hard for anyone to survive economically when they are paying $6 to $11 a gallon for heating oil and gasoline, and when electricity generated from diesel fuel reflects those sharp price hikes. High energy costs also affect everything from the price of airfare to villages to the cost of buying groceries, from the cost of running health clinics to the cost of preparing for subsistence hunts. As all commodities are flown into rural communities, the prices rural residents pay for the necessities of life are unjustifiably high. Every aspect of rural life has become a challenge with the rising cost of fuel.

In an attempt to lessen the burden, Senator Murkowski has worked on several fronts. She helped lead an effort in 2008 that doubled federal funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) and allowed more Alaskans to qualify for the program. When the President proposed cutting funding for LIHEAP assistance in half, the Senator helped with an effort that resulted in an extra $1.4 billion to be appropriated for LIHEAP in FY 2011. Senator Murkowski continues to press for additional funding for LIHEAP through her vote on the Appropriations Committee.

Senator Murkowski also worked in 2007 to win approval of a Renewable Energy Employment Grant program to increase federal aid to help rural villages and utilities afford to install renewable energy projects. While the program's grants have yet to be funded, she continues to press for legislation to promote a series of renewable energy technologies.

Hydroelectric Development: To promote construction of clean hydroelectric development, the Senator introduced the Hydropower Improvement Act of 2013 (S. 545) on March 13, 2013. The bill declares the sense of the Senate that the United States should increase substantially the capacity and generation of clean, renewable hydropower which will improve the environmental quality of resources and support local job creation and economic investment across the United States.

Marine Hydrokinetic Development: The Senator is working with Senator Ron Wyden, the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, to increase research and aid development of Marine Hydrokinetic: wave, tidal, current and thermal energy -- so-called ocean energy.

Geothermal Energy Development: The Senator is working with Senator Wyden to aid research for geothermal energy.

Climate Change

The very existence of the Alaska Native way of life may be threatened if climate change results in rising ocean levels, melting permafrost, increased coastal erosion and changes in fisheries and animal migrations, affecting subsistence hunting and fishing activities. Communities such as Shishmaref, Kivalina and Newtok are literally being swept away into the sea because of coastal erosion. Senator Murkowski believes it is necessary that rural communities have adequate evacuation routes in case of emergencies, but also help to deal with remediation costs and perhaps with village relocation costs. For years Senator Murkowski has been working with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to attempt to increase aid for villages. Several years ago, the senator sponsored and won passage of legislation that is allowing Newtok to relocate to a new village site.

On May 15th, 2013 the Senate passed the Water Resources Development Act, a bill that authorizes activities of the Army Corps of Engineers. Senator Murkowski added language to the bill to allow the Corps to work with Alaska Native villages threatened by flooding, inundation or erosion on risk reduction programs.

The Senator understands that the ultimate solution, however, is to attempt to tackle climate change at its source. Senator Murkowski has led efforts to increase funding for renewable and alternative fuels that will emit no or less carbon dioxide, in case carbon emissions are leading to a Greenhouse Effect raising global temperatures. She will continue those efforts in the 113th Congress.

There are a number of ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions without imposing mandates or increasing energy costs. The United States is already recognized as a leader in energy efficiency, and there are countless opportunities -- across various sectors of the economy -- to pursue environmental progress. These include diversified energy supplies, increased resilience to extreme weather, funding for early-stage R&D, lower costs to finance new ventures, and prudent, temporary subsidies offset by new revenues. Senator Murkowski believes these "no regrets' climate policies deserve more attention.

Such a balanced approach would avoid new burdens and rely instead on policies capable of attracting popular support. Going forward, Senator Murkowski believes America's private-sector ingenuity and technological deployment can and should play a larger role than the government picking winners and losers.

Protecting Alaska's Environment

Renewable Energy and Other Environmental Provisions

As Ranking Member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and a former member of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Senator Murkowski has pressed hard for legislation to help Alaska and the nation's environment. As a life-long Alaskan who has lived in Southeast, Southcentral and Interior Alaska, the Senator understands the importance of protecting the land and the wildlife that call The Great Land home. She understands that the federal government needs to protect the health of Alaska's lands and waters both to protect the beauty of the Last Frontier, but also because a sizeable number of Alaskans, about 60,000, earn their living from the seafood industry, because more than 20,000 earn their living from tourism that often is centered around the wildlife and the scenic wonders of Alaska, and because subsistence hunting and fishing is vital for the economic survival of so many in rural Alaska.

To protect the environment the Senator has worked to promote renewable and alternative energy that would help to reduce carbon emissions that may be affecting temperature and causing the acidification of coastal waters. She has pushed research and funding for wind, geothermal, conventional hydro and marine hydrokinetic (ocean) energy: wave, current and tidal generated electricity. In 2007 she authored legislation to create a Renewable Energy Deployment grant program to help fund construction of renewable energy, including small hydroelectric power in the state. Also in 2007 she won passage of the Alaska Water Resources Act to study the availability of good drinking water throughout Southcentral Alaska. The Senator in 2008 co-sponsored successful legislation to impose a ban on the export of mercury overseas to reduce the danger that it will be burned and find its way by air currents into Alaska waters, increasing the mercury levels in seafood that can cause health impacts.

She won adoption of the Kenai Mountains-Turnagain Arm National Heritage Area to enlist the National Park Service to help protect the history of the Kenai Peninsula.

For the future she continues to work on legislation to protect the Arctic and to aid fisheries in the ocean environment.

Enhancing Alaskans' Access to the Great Land Key Lands Legislation

Senator Murkowski takes seriously her role of overseer for how the federal government manages its lands in Alaska. She especially takes seriously her role of keeping the federal government from adopting needlessly restrictive land use regulations that could deprive Alaskans of our ability to hunt, fish and recreate in The Last Frontier. As an outdoorswoman, a fisherman, skier and hiker of everything from the Chilkoot Trail in Southeast to Flattop in Anchorage, Senator Murkowski understands the importance of protecting Alaskans' access to federal lands. She also understands that as a natural resource-rich state, federal lands are vital for timber, mineral development, tourism, fishing and a host of other economic activities.

The federal government clearly has unique land responsibilities to Alaska. More than 60 percent of the 365 million acres of lands remain in federal ownership.

The Bureau of Land Management controls nearly 86 million acres;

The National Park Service nearly 53 million;

The Forest Service 22.5 million, and;

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 72.4 million acres of refuge.

The U.S. military controls 2.3 million acres.

More than 50 years after Statehood when Alaska was promised 104.5 million acres and nearly 40 years after passage of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, when Alaska Native corporations were promised 45.39 million acres, the government still needs to convey 6.1 million acres to the State and 4.2 million acres to the Native corporations, about 6 and 10 percent of the total entitlements respectively. Management of that land is more complex because 1980's Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act contained special provisions to guarantee Alaskans more access to federal lands - special regulations not seemingly always understood by federal land managers in the State.

In the Senator's decade in the U.S. Senate she has sponsored and won approval of a host of land legislation, including:

Izembek Wildlife land trade to allow road access between King Cove and Cold Bay on the Alaska Peninsula (2009);

Newtok land exchange to allow the southwest village battling river erosion to move to a new site (2003);

Land exchanges involving the communities of Craig (2003), Coffman Cove (2009) and Salmon Lakes in the Bering Straits Region (2012);

Development of the Reynolds Creek hydroelectric project on Prince of Wales Island;
"Lucy's Law" to help the next of kin of federal workers killed on duty (2003);

Local hire promotion rights for National Park Service employees (2009);

Helping Alaskans gain jobs with the National Park Service (2012);

Naming an ice field in Southcentral and a mountain near Denali for former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, who died in a 2010 plane crash;

An extension in development time for the National Law Enforcement Museum in Washington, D.C.

Other land legislation Senator Murkowski is currently working on:

Providing Safe Access to King Cove:

Senator Lisa Murkowski has criticized a decision by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service opposing a land exchange that would provide emergency road access for the people of King Cove.

The land exchange, which was approved by Congress in 2009, would add 56,000 acres of state and tribal lands to the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge on the Alaska Peninsula and allow the community of King Cove to build a single-lane, gravel road through 206 acres of the refuge to the all-weather airport in Cold Bay for emergency medical evacuation purposes.

A dozen deaths have been attributed to the lack of road access to the Cold Bay airport over the past 30 years. The worst accident occurred in 1981 when a plane crashed during an attempted medical evacuation, killing all four people onboard.

The Fish and Wildlife Service issued a final environmental impact statement in early 2013 opposing the land exchange and emergency access road. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell has the authority to override the Fish and Wildlife Service's recommendation and determine that the land exchange and road are in the public interest. Senator Murkowski is urging the Secretary to make the right decision and approve the land exchange and road.

"I could not feel more strongly that the Fish and Wildlife Service's recent decision was wrong, and that if allowed to stand will have grave consequences for the people of King Cove," Senator Murkowski wrote in separate letters to President Obama and former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar. "As such, I am prepared to consider all actions available to me as a U.S. Senator to convince you and others in your administration that denying the people of King Cove reliable access to medical care would be a travesty."

Kantishna Micro Hydro Bill:

The Senator, again in the 113th Congress, is working to win approval of legislation to permit the construction of a small hydroelectric power plant in the Kantishna area of Denali National Park and Preserve to provide environmentally clean electricity to inholders in the park. The bill, which would allow a small weir on Eureka Creek to provide water for the hydroelectricity, involves a land exchange of less than 18 acres in the park. The bill, S. 157, is supported by the National Park Service. The bill passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee favorably on March 24, 2013.

Sealaska Land Bill:

Senator Lisa Murkowski continues to advocate for passage of her Southeast Alaska Native Land Entitlement Finalization and Jobs Protection Act, the so-called Sealaska lands bill, S. 340, in the 113th Congress.

The newly revised bill, which passed the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on June 18, 2013, establishes where and how Sealaska may select the 70,075 acres of land it's entitled to under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 (ANCSA). In all, Sealaska will receive about 68,400 acres of land for timber development, about 1,099 acres for other economic development purposes, such as hydroelectric and marine hydrokinetic power generation; future tourism development sites near Yakutat, Kake, and Hydaburg; and tribal burial and historically significant sites.

The bill provides a balance of old-growth and second-growth timber for harvest, allowing Sealaska's timber business to transition to second-growth harvesting.

Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act:

On January 29, 2013 Senator Murkowski introduced S. 170, the Recreational Fishing and Hunting Heritage and Opportunities Act.

This legislation would protect the public's right to engage in recreational hunting, fishing, and shooting on federal lands. It mandates that lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service be open to recreational hunting, fishing, and shooting unless specifically closed by the agencies. It also supports Executive Order 13443, which directs federal land management agencies to facilitate the expansion and enhancement of hunting on federal lands, and ensures sound scientific management of wildlife and their habitat.

Denali National Park Improvement Act:

Senator Murkowski's legislation, S. 157, to name the National Park Service Ranger Station in Talkeetna after Alaskan Native Walter Harper, the first man to summit North America's highest peak; and to reduce the amount of diesel oil used in the Denali National Park and Preserve was passed by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on June 19, 2013.

In addition to honoring Harper, who was a member of Hudson Stuck's and Harry Karstens' 1913 legendary climbing party; the bill authorizes the construction of a small hydropower project in the Kantishna Hills area of the national park; and allows for the possibility of a natural gas pipeline to be routed along the George Parks Highway.

Huna Tlingit Traditional Gull Egg Use Act:

In an effort to help Southeast Alaska Natives continue to engage in traditional subsistence activities, the Senator has introduced legislation to allow Huna tribal members from Hoonah Alaska to take seagull eggs from inside Glacier Bay National Park and Preserve. The bill, S 156, cleared the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on May 16, 2013.

Niblack and Bokan Mountain Mining Area Roads Authorization Act:

The bill, S. 181, would permit a road to be built to the Niblack gold, silver, copper, and zinc mine and to the Bokan Mountain Rare Earth Elements mine on southern Prince of Wales Island in Southeast Alaska. It would allow the road to cross at least 50 miles of inventoried roadless areas so that workers from the communities of Craig, Klawock and Hydaburg could make the daily commute to jobs at the mines.

Anchorage Land Conveyance Act:

This bill, S. 182, will lift a reversionary clause and allow the Municipality of Anchorage to sell three tracts in downtown Anchorage, including the site of the Egan Convention Center, to get the tracts onto the town's tax rolls. It involves allowing the sale of 2.7 acres of land, including a downtown parking lot and an undeveloped parcel on the north side of downtown. The land was given to the city by the federal government in the 1960s and 1980s for governmental purposes. Anchorage Mayor Daniel Sullivan is asking that the city be allowed to dispose of the property, since it is no longer needed for municipal purposes.

Small Miner Waiver Bill:

This bill, S. 366, would restore small mining claims to several Alaskans who have lost their claims because of administrative issues with the small miner waiver law. It was heard by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on April 25, 2013.

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