Ulmer discusses Arctic, research efforts

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Chair of US Arctic Research Commission says US two-year term heading Arctic Council will bring focus to Alaska, Arctic policy

Steve Quinn

For Petroleum News

Former Alaska Lt. Gov. Fran Ulmer is going to be one busy lady the next few years, if she isn’t already. She recently was named special advisor on Arctic science and policy by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

She is also serving as the chair for the U.S. Arctic Research Commission and in 2010 received a presidential appointment to the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling.

Next year the U.S. will begin serving a two-year term as the chair to the Arctic Council, which will bring focus on the country and state’s role in Arctic policy and development.

Ulmer discussed these topics with Petroleum News in a recent interview.

Petroleum News: Let’s start with the U.S. Arctic Research Commission. Talk a little about its mission.

Ulmer: The U.S. Arctic Research Commission was created by Congress in the early 1980s to provide advice to Congress, the president and federal agencies on Arctic research policy. It has done a variety of things over the years to fulfill that mission, including hosting workshops and seminars, providing research reports on specific topics, providing regular goals and objectives for the federal agencies as they plan their federal research expenditures.

It’s a body that is created by Congress, but the members are appointed directly by the president, and I was appointed by President Obama as the chair. He designates who the chair is. It’s staffed by people who are in Washington, D.C., and in Anchorage. So the Executive Director John Farrell, he’s in D.C., the deputy Cheryl Rosa is here in Anchorage

Petroleum News: What kind of role does this play as it relates to resource development?

Ulmer: The research done in the Arctic informs decision makers, whether they are in the public sector, like federal agencies trying to make choices about permits, or the private sector trying to decide what the risk profile is about particular developments, and how to manage that risk and how investments can be protected. Information is pretty essential for any decision maker - public or private sector - and the idea behind the Arctic research as it relates to federal agencies is to make sure the money being spent - whether spent by the Interior or National Science Foundation - actually reflects those areas where there is the most need for information, for data, for analysis, for understanding.

So it may not directly impact the decisions about economic development in the Arctic but it certainly helps people make better choices about where to invest, where to build a port, or to the extent where oil development is likely to interfere with subsistence users and where it’s more compatible with the region. It’s not directly to benefit individual, company or project, but the research dollars spent by the federal government unquestionably add to the understanding of the region.

This region is, generally speaking, still is a little mysterious. It’s a place where there are a lot of uncertainties. That’s largely because it’s still a region with low population and with very low amounts of industrial activity compared to areas farther south. There are still big parts of the Arctic where we are learning, charting and mapping and getting the kind of information that is essential for making good decisions.

That’s accelerated and emphasized - maybe even made more challenging - by the fact that this is a region that is changing so rapidly because of warming, ice retreats, permafrost thawing, coastal erosion, all of it. It’s a very dynamic space. The fact that there is a lot of changing going on and there is a lot of pressure to provide additional infrastructure and facilities, things that doing research, gathering information and contributing to the understanding to this region is more important now that it’s ever been.

Petroleum News: Speaking to that, and work being done now being more important that it’s ever been, the U.S. takes over as chair of the Arctic Council and you received a special advisor appointment, can you please speak to that?

Ulmer: Secretary (John) Kerry asked me to provide assistance to him and Admiral Papp as the U.S. approaches this chairmanship. I’m happy to do so as a long-time Alaskan. I’m hoping adding perspectives of this region can contribute to the choices that get made by this adminsti4raton as it develops its chairmanship agenda. As we produce output from that chairmanship, hopefully I can be a link to various individual, entities, business, universities, etc, and contribute those efforts.

Petroleum News: Alaskans know who you are, but who is Admiral Papp? Most Alaskans don’t know who he is, even as he recently visited the state.

Ulmer: He spent his entire career with the U.S. Coast Guard, and the Coast Guard is a big player in Alaska, has been for a long time for a variety of the services that they provide in fisheries enforcement to search and rescue. So his experiences in the Coast Guard, particularly as it relates to shipping navigation and search and rescue, is central to the big questions that face all of the Arctic nations regarding safety and reducing risk.

It’s safety for people, it’s safety for marine mammals, and it’s safety for the environment. I think his understanding of the resources available of the Coast Guard but also from the other federal agencies that have participated with the Coast Guard in doing a lot of the work in Alaska and doing a lot of the work in the North Pacific will help bring reality in some of the proposals and some of the projects that get undertaken during the U.S. chairmanship.

Petroleum News: Getting back to you being here in Alaska and that liaison of sorts, whether it’s to Secretary Kerry or Admiral Papp, how important is it to have the Alaska aspect? I ask this because a lot of people tell me when they go to Washington, they find people view this state and the Arctic with disconnect. Do you find that?

Ulmer: I think there are a lot of misconceptions about the Arctic in general. I think there is a lot of work to be done in educating and explaining to people who have never been to Alaska or have an idealized view of Alaska and the Arctic. That’s a very important role for all of us who live here, all of us who communicate: the media; the congressional delegation; the businesses who are not only here but also do business around the world.

We have an obligation to explain this place and get people interested in it. The recent interest over the last few years in the Arctic is providing a window of opportunity for the education to take place. It’s very hard to tell somebody about something if they are not interested. If they are interested, it’s a lot easier. Right now they are interested in the Arctic. They are interested because there has been media coverage about ice retreating. There has been media coverage about iconic marine animals that symbolize the Arctic like polar bears and some of the threat marine animals face when the ice retreats. I think there is an opportunity to explain why the Arctic matters beyond the Arctic. In other words there is a lot happening now and will be happening in the near future that will impact other regions in the Lower 48 and in the world and yes, I do think that is a piece of what not only I can do, but our U.S. Senators our governor, our legislators, our media, our business can help paint a more realistic picture of what’s going on in the Arctic.

Petroleum News: OK, so let’s say I’ve never been to Alaska and know every little about it because I’ve been in another part of the country most of my life. Why does the Arctic matter?

Ulmer: Let’s start with the basics. People live in the Arctic, unlike Antarctica where there are penguins. In the Arctic there are people who have lived in the Arctic for centuries who have developed a lot of expertise and sense of place, which is very important culturally but it’s also important in terms of the economy and society. So the expertise that has been developed not just in Alaska and Canada but in Finland and throughout the Arctic region is valuable to people as they try to develop within the region some of the economic opportunities that exist.

The USGS for example has estimated that an extraordinary amount of oil and gas is here. So the opportunity over some period of time for oil, gas and minerals to be developed in the Arctic, they definitely impact people who live beyond our Arctic region in terms of access to resources and the opportunity in some cases for business development, jobs and in vestment

The Arctic really matters to people who don’t live here from another perspective and that is the way in which the Arctic influences the weather at mid latitudes. There is a fair amount of interesting research that is being discussed not just in academic journals, but in the media as well about the polar vortex and the extent to which the warming conditions in the Arctic and the retreat of the Arctic sea ice, which creates a significant wobble of the jet stream.

This means areas in the Lower 48 may experience more warmth or more cold, or more wet and dry conditions for longer periods of time than has been experienced in the past. Weird weather, I guess, is the best way to put it. The changes in the amount of ice in the Arctic changing the jet stream, also changes the weather in the Lower 48 .This is a hypothesis. I don’t want to be quoted as say this is a reality.

It’s a hypothesis that some of the atmospheric scientists who are looking at changes occurring in mid latitudes and tying it to the sea ice and warming in the Arctic. There is emerging science that says what happens in the Arctic doesn’t stay in the Arctic, and that there are connections between the weather systems, so it’s important for people to get better educated about how interconnected these water, atmosphere, temperature connections connect globally.

Petroleum News: You were on the task force that reviewed the Deepwater Horizon spill. What kind of lessons from that spill can be applied to the Arctic as companies move forward with any decision to develop?

Ulmer: The commission that I served on, of course primarily focused on the Macondo well and the Gulf of Mexico. We did have a section in our report specifically addressing other areas, specifically the Arctic. We made a few recommendations including that the U.S. adopt Arctic specific drilling standards for oil and gas development in the Arctic and that it set a high standard and be a model for other regions in the Arctic like Russia and Greenland. So the highest possible standards and the lowest possible risk would be the rule. The reason we made those recommendations is probably pretty obvious. The Arctic is a valuable, vulnerable and challenging place to do business. To provide an adequate level of assurance to the indigenous people who live in the Arctic and who rely on marine mammals and fish and the resource provided in an environment that isn’t jeopardized by industrialized activity is incredibly important

The Department of the Interior is releasing soon its Arctic specific standards for oil and gas development. They submitted supposed regulations to OMB for review so it’s in the review process now. I don’t know what those regulations will say. The work the Interior is doing on that is consistent with the idea that the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Commission had and that is the Arctic isn’t like the Gulf of Mexico and that it does require additional precautions to make sure risk is reduced.

One of the other things to take from the Deepwater Horizon experience, is it’s really best to emphasize on prevention rather than focus on the preoccupation with oil spill response. The reason I saw that is once the oil is in the water, it is incredibly difficult to recover it, whether you are in the most ideal conditions like the Gulf of Mexico where you’ve got all kinds of responders - boats and planes - responders on the water as quickly as possible and much quicker than the Arctic region. Even there in the Gulf of Mexico, only a small percentage of the oil spilled in that disaster ever got recovered.

And so the idea that in the Arctic where you would have periods of darkness, extreme cold, ice, hurricane-force winds, all of the challenging conditions that add much more difficulty in responding to a spill means that it’s important that all efforts possible are made to make sure you don’t get a spill. In other words, it’s all about prevention. It’s all about reducing risk. To the extent possible having containment systems ready, willing and able to get the oil out as much as possible and as soon as possible as opposed to trying to get the oil out of icy waters. A number of reports have been released in how you would respond to a spill in icy waters. The Arctic Research Commission did a report on that.

Petroleum News: OK, so you’ve noted the importance of oil spill prevention. What about oil spill response? A spill could come from outside our borders and would need to respond?

Ulmer: Yes, of course. There is a lot being done. The U.S. Arctic Research Commission did a report on all of the research that’s been done on how you would respond to an oil spill in ice waters. That report, which is available online at www.arctic.gov, will tell you everything that so far has been researched and will also provide a list of what needs to be done and what hasn’t been done in understanding how you could effectively clean up an icy spill. In addition to that report, the National Research Council recently released a report similar to ours that identifies the gaps. In other words what don’t we know, what do we need to know and also what kind of networks of responders might help if there is a spill whether it’s from shipping or whether it’s from oil and gas.

In addition to those two things which lays out what do we know and what do we need to know, there is also research done by the oil industry itself and by various educational institutions and universities doing research into how you change the technology. What kind of dispersants would work in cold water? How would you modify the suction devices that get used? I guess what I’m trying to say is there are a lot of people interested in this topic.

Now, the Arctic Council adopted in 2013 an agreement among the Arctic Eight to work out oil prevention and response coordination. The search and rescue agreement and the oil spill response agreement lay out a lot of things that need to be done by the countries including doing training exercises and exchanging technologies. So there is a whole lot of effort in that regard compared to 10 years ago. Most people will admit we don’t have nearly enough the capacity to respond and we need additional investment by the private sector and the public sector.

Petroleum News: Closer to home, the Legislature’s Arctic Policy Commission has been busy these last two years. What kind of value can this group bring to the discussion with the U.S. becoming the Arctic Council chair next year?

Ulmer: It’s important for the state of Alaska to give clear direction to itself and others as to what its priorities are as relates to the Arctic. I think that the fact the Arctic Policy Commission exists and is trying to raise the awareness level within the state on the importance of the Arctic and the importance of providing necessary infrastructure, I think that is a really good thing. I applaud the fact that they are an entity that exists within the public and private sector. It’s the Legislature, community leaders and business leaders, a cross section that I think is very healthy. I hope the Legislature and the governor take to heart some of the recommendations some things the state can do itself. We are always looking to the federal government to do X, Y, and Z. there are a number of things the state of Alaska can do itself. It’s definitely a combined thing: state, federal, community and private sector. Having the AAPC be part of the dialogue and increasing the discussion that’s taking place in state about the future of the Arctic is very healthy.

Petroleum News: Moving on to the larger body, the Arctic Council, you noted how it’s incumbent on several groups to educate the rest of the country about Alaska and it being an Arctic state, making us an Arctic country. Can having the U.S. take over as chair help drive that?

Ulmer: Yes, I do. I think it will provide a teachable moment, an opportunity for attention that is given to the chairmanship by the media and working group activities, it will provide information and it will give to the media something interesting to cover other than the retreat of sea ice. Having the attention and being center stage, it will generate a lot of interviews and coverage that will give people in the Lower 48 more of a sense about what’s happening here and why it matters, perhaps raise for them a question in their own minds that there is something I need to know more about.