[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 107 (Friday, July 25, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S8141-S8143]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        NATIONAL ENERGY SECURITY

  Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I would like to call attention to an 
extraordinary experience that occurred last weekend, involving several 
Members of this body who joined my wife and me in visiting our great 
State of Alaska: Senator Helms and Mrs. Helms, the Senator from North 
Carolina; Senator Jeffords from Vermont, Senator Inhofe of Oklahoma, 
and Senator Smith from Oregon. We left last Friday after the close of 
business Thursday night. We covered approximately 7,400 miles in about 
64 hours. We visited eight cities and communities. I think we were in 
the airplane some 23 hours, spent 6 hours on a bus, and at least 10 
hours visiting with people on the ground in Alaska. But for that 
relatively brief time, I think a great deal was learned.
  The purpose of the trip, relative to aspects of the national energy 
security of the country, was to observe the oil development on the 
North Slope of Alaska at Prudhoe Bay, and to follow the pipeline 800 
miles down to the terminus at Valdez.
  We flew on Friday direct from Washington, DC, via Edmonton, Canada to 
Cordova, AK, in Prince William Sound, where we were met by Mayor 
Johnson, who gave us an overview of the impact of the Federal 
Government relations and the aftereffects of the Exxon Valdez oilspill 
at Bligh Reef.
  We then got into smaller aircraft and flew around Prince William 
Sound. We viewed Colombia Glacier and at the area where the Exxon 
Valdez went aground--we observed the beaches closely. I am pleased to 
tell my colleagues that there was absolutely no sign of any residue 
from that terrible accident.
  We then landed in Valdez, were met by a group of people, and boarded 
a bus to go around the harbor to the pipeline terminal, which is the 
largest oil terminal in the United States. A full 25

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percent of our total crude oil production is dispatched on U.S.-flagged 
tankers that move it to Hawaii, to Los Angeles and San Francisco on the 
west coast, and to other areas.
  It was remarkable to note that there were hundreds of tourists 
fishing for salmon, right next to the oil terminal, in small boats. We 
saw several fish being caught. These weren't shills, these were real 
people, real tourists out there, Mr. President.
  We had an opportunity to inspect the terminal. We observed the major 
storage area. We actually went into one of the storage tanks that was 
being cleaned. The setting of the terminal--that I remind my colleagues 
has the capability of supplying this Nation with 25 percent of its 
total crude oil--is really dramatic. It sits on a shelf across the 
harbor from Valdez, on solid rock, with a dramatic background of 
snowcapped peaks. More significant still is, I think, the technology 
that has been adopted there.
  They are currently able to recapture any emissions from the loading 
tankers, that is, the fumes coming from loading the tankers, and put 
them back into a closed recovery process. So there are virtually no 
emissions coming out during the loading process. To protect against 
liquids, each ship has a boom around it while it is loaded to make sure 
that there is no oil can possibly escape. I think the oil spillage 
there in the last several years has totaled less than a gallon, to give 
you some idea of the safety and technology that has been adopted.
  We next went back to Valdez by boat, met with community leaders and 
then got back on our airplane and flew to Fairbanks. In Fairbanks we 
were hosted at a dinner by the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., the Alaska 
Native corporation representing the North Slope area. Next morning we 
flew from Barrow to Fairbanks, about an hour-and-a-half flight. Point 
Barrow is the northernmost community in the United States. You can't go 
any further north without falling off the top.
  There we met with a number of Native people, and they were very 
explicit in explaining to us the significant difference that energy 
development has made to their lives. One young man indicated that he 
used to come to school to keep warm, because there was not enough heat 
in his home. They had to scrounge on the beach for driftwood, driftwood 
that is not native to the area because Barrow is far north of the tree 
line, but would float in from the MacKenzie River 100 miles away to the 
east and wash up on the beach. He said things are different now. He 
went to a school that was built by the North Slope Borough government 
and funded by the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. It is one of the finest 
schools in the United States. It has everything--even indoor recess 
capability, a good idea in that climate. Really a magnificent facility. 
We also visited the local hospital and several other things.

  But the point the resident brought out is that they prospered only as 
a consequence of having a tax base based on resource development--oil 
and gas. They were able to send their children to school. And it was 
not like the past when there were no economic benefits, no support 
base. I think everyone was very pleased at the presentation because it 
provided a point of view on energy development that is not often made.
  We next flew in our airplane to Prudhoe Bay, the beginning of the 
800-mile pipeline, to observe the oilfields. Then we went by bus to a 
site called Endicott. This is a field based on a man-made island about 
11 miles offshore, made of gravel. It is the seventh largest producing 
oilfield in North America, and yet it has a footprint of only 54 acres. 
That's very significant when you consider the advancements in oil 
technology between Prudhoe Bay and Endicott, and realize they can 
develop oil using directional drilling from a very small platform--that 
is what Endicott means.
  We then drove back to Prudhoe Bay, got in small aircraft and went 
east to the Canadian border. There, we were inside the Arctic National 
Wildlife Refuge--ANWR. We actually flew into the ANWR area to a village 
that is in the middle of ANWR called Kaktovik. We met with the 
villagers. They were out fishing. It was a beautiful day. There was 
virtually no wind. The icecap moved away from the shore, leaving blue 
waters. We saw maybe 10,000 caribou, and several hundred musk ox on the 
tundra.
  The interesting thing is we saw where the proposed wells are going to 
be developed on the State's side of ANWR, and then we went near a well 
site that is very close to the edge of ANWR called Sourdough. This is a 
well on State land adjacent to ANWR and which may be the site of a 
major oil discovery.
  The question there is whether this discovery extends into ANWR or is 
limited just to the State land next to it. Of course, this presents a 
problem and a question of responsibility for the Secretary of the 
Interior. Because he has public trust responsibility to determine if 
there is, in fact, a reservoir of oil on the Federal side. That's 
important because if the State allows drilling and the State pulls down 
the oil deposit under its well, a portion of that resource could belong 
to the Federal Government.
  We went to a couple of other areas that were interesting. Some in the 
group asked, ``Where are the pictures of the coastal plain that we see 
in the environmental magazines that portray the sensitive coastal plain 
area?'' We took the group back into that area, a dramatically different 
region that is not in the same area as the coastal plain despite the 
pictures we see so often. We also observed a number of areas where they 
plan to drill on the State's side, and flew over the one exploratory 
well that had been drilled within the ANWR area. There was no evidence, 
other than you can see a discoloration of the tundra, of that well's 
existence--no structures of any kind.
  What that well may or may not contain we still don't know because 
that information has never been released by the companies that did the 
drilling. It is somewhat academic at this point, because if there were 
substantial reserves there, there is no way to take them out because 
it's all Federal land. Without the ability to transfer the oil through 
a pipeline it is impractical and unreasonable to proceed until Congress 
resolves the issue of what to do with the 1002 area.
  This is a unique area, part of ANWR, but just 1\1/2\ million acres 
out of the 19-million-acre total. The area of ANWR is basically made up 
of three parcels. About 8 million acres are in the wilderness, about 9 
million acres are in what we call refuges. Only 1\1/2\ million acres 
are included in the so-called 1002 area, which was reserved for the 
Congress of the United States to decide whether or not it is in the 
national interest to open that area for oil and gas exploration.
  To conclude with a brief description of the trip, I think my 
colleagues would agree, they saw a great big hunk of American real 
estate and got a feel for the sensitive areas. They got a feel for the 
advanced technology that is underway currently for oil and gas 
exploration and production. We saw foxes. We saw caribou running ahead 
of our bus on the roads in Prudhoe Bay.
  Then after that day, we flew back to Fairbanks where we were hosted 
by the Alaska miners to a dinner. The next morning, the University of 
Alaska, on Sunday, hosted the Members to a breakfast at 8 o'clock. Then 
at 9 o'clock, we went out to the Fort Knox gold mine. This is the 
largest gold mine in Alaska producing from a new technology that gets 
the very fine gold and is able to recover it. It is operating 7 days a 
week, 24 hours a day with a shift of about 200 personnel, but the 
significance is that they brought in a bar of gold, a brick, a little 
bit bigger than a brick, very heavy. It was worth about $167,000. That 
is what one brick of gold is worth.
  We drove back to Fairbanks, got in the airplane at noon on Sunday, 
and flew back the rest of the day, got in here at midnight, and went to 
work Monday morning.
  I simply describe this as evidence, I think, of an opportunity for 
Members to see Alaska, such as Senator Helms, Senator Jeffords, Senator 
Inhofe, Senator Smith, the current occupant of the chair, and see for 
themselves what the issues are relative to the issue of ANWR and other 
aspects of the national energy security interests which Alaska 
contributes significantly to and address the dilemma associated with 
development on public land and talk to Alaskans who we feel are the 
best stewards of the land.

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  So I encourage my other colleagues to contact the Senators in 
question--Senators Helms, Jeffords, Inhofe, and Smith of Oregon, 
because we would like to host others in Alaska and let them see for 
themselves as they address many of the issues that are going to 
determine the manner in which Congress authorizes resource development 
on public lands in our Nation's largest State.
  With that, I thank my colleague who has been patient, and I yield the 
floor.
  Mr. SESSIONS addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Alabama.

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