[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 56 (Thursday, April 22, 1999)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4135-S4136]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         ADDITIONAL STATEMENTS

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                    ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE

 Mr. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, today a number of my colleagues 
introduced legislation to lock up America's best chance to reduce our 
dependence on foreign oil.
  This legislation is bad policy Mr. President and should be vigorously 
opposed.


                  increasing dependence on foreign oil

  Many times on the floor of the Senate my colleagues have heard me 
talk about the United State's increasing dependence on foreign oil.
  I have made the point that we are importing too much of our oil from 
oversees while watching our domestic level of production decrease by 
the day.
  Consider the following:
  In 1994, domestic oil production dropped to 6.6 million barrels a 
day--the lowest annual level since 1954;
  North slope oil fields--which provide 25 percent of our domestic 
production--has been in decline since 1988.
  At the same time, national demand has steadily increased more than 
17.7 million barrels per day--the highest level since the mid-1970's
  Today the U.S. imports close to 56 percent of its oil.
  Just how significant is a 56 percent dependence on foreign oil--lets 
look at it:
  In 1973, the year of the Arab oil embargo--the year of the 2-hour 
wait at the gas lines--the United States was 36 percent dependent on 
foreign oil
  In 1991, the year of Desert Storm, the United States was 46 percent 
dependent on foreign oil
  Now we are 54 percent dependent.
  And if we don't act soon there is no way to stop our increasing 
dependence on imported oil--a dependence our own Government says could 
be 67 percent by 2010.
  In the meantime countries such as Algeria, Iraq, Libya, and Nigeria 
are all planning to increase their production levels.
  Locking up ANWR in wilderness and increasing our dependence on 
foreign oil is bad policy.


              anwr reserve estimates are the highest ever

  In 1998 the Department of the Interior published the results of over 
3

[[Page S4136]]

years of research on the oil and gas potential of the 1002 area of 
ANWR.
  The 1998 estimates is the highest estimate ever published regarding 
the 1002 area estimating a mean resource for the coastal plain of 7.7 
billion barrels of produceable oil.
  The new estimates are significantly higher than those produced by the 
Department of the Interior in 1987 which led to their recommendation to 
Congress to open the 1.5 million-acre area to responsible oil and gas 
leasing, exploration, and production.


          technology in the arctic allows for safe development

  The sponsors of the legislation do not recognize the incredible 
advances in development technologies on the North Slope.
  This technology has reduced the size of the impact from development 
by more than 60 percent and is literally the best in the world.


      alaskans and native people of alaska overwhelmingly support

  Virtually all of Alaska's elected officials--both Republicans and 
Democrats support the careful development of this area.
  The overwhelming majority of the Native people of Alaska support 
development of this area and strongly oppose wilderness designation, 
including the people who live in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 
Coastal Plain.
  Recently the mayor of the North Slope Borough, Ben Nageak, who was 
born in the heart of the coastal plain at Kaktovik, wrote a letter to 
the President opposing wilderness designation.

       The oil industry has been a good friend to the environment 
     here while providing us with money and jobs so that we could 
     be more productive members of American society. It 
     (wilderness designation) will cripple our ability to wean 
     ourselves away from the Federal Government's subsidies and 
     destroy our attempts at self reliance.

                            jobs and revenue

  It is estimated between 250,000 and 750,000 jobs nationwide will be 
created through safe exploration and development.
  Billions of dollars of Federal revenues would be generated by safe 
exploration and development.
  As a nation dependent on energy for our economic survival we have to 
find and produce energy here at home.
  We must stop driving our energy producing industries and our energy 
jobs overseas.
  According to the Department of Energy, U.S. dependence on foreign oil 
is expected to rise to 70 percent by the year 2000.
  How much more likely are we to put our children and grand children in 
hams way on foreign oil to protect our domestic interests when we 
import 70 percent of our oil?
  How can elected officials of this country--Members of this body--
think that it is better policy to rely on oil from the likes of Saddam 
Hussein for U.S. energy security that it is to develop and produce our 
own?

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