Northern Waters Task Force fills gap

Rep. Reggie Joule, chair of task force, says Alaska needs to be involved in Arctic policy decisions for both benefits and protection

Steve Quinn

For Petroleum News

The state’s Northern Waters Task Force is off to a slow start, but don’t blame its leader Rep. Reggie Joule.

The 11-person group has been entrusted with a joint state/federal commission designed to oversee development of northern oceans.

And Joule is ready to get down to business.

But thanks to a special session Joule has had to postpone meetings and even a trip to Norway, an Arctic nation with similar resource development issues as Alaska.

The group was established with unanimous backing of the Legislature toward the end of last year’s session.

The task force will spend the rest of the year addressing areas including Arctic governance; oil, gas and mineral development; Arctic fisheries; marine transportation; Arctic research and Arctic infrastructure.

It features some familiar names like Vice-Chair Sen. Bert Stedman, a Sitka Republican, Sen. Lyman Hoffman, a Bethel Democrat, and Rep. Bob Herron.

Others include leaders from coastal communities and Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Larry Hartig.

Joule will provide a final report to the Legislature by Jan. 30, 2012.

Joule is in his 10th term with the Legislature and a member of the House Finance Committee which reviews all resource development issues with price tags attached to them.

Joule sat down with Petroleum News to discuss his goals for the task force and what may be ahead for the state’s oil tax rewrite debate.

Petroleum News: How did this group come together?

Joule: The Senate President (Gary Stevens) and House Speaker (Mike Chenault) made the decisions. It’s largely for those communities to be impacted, from the North Slope to Dutch Harbor, which is kind of the springboard for marine transportation.

Petroleum News: Did you want to be chairman?

Joule: I guess so, yeah. I just wanted to get on the task force because it’s timely. I try to take somewhat of a balanced approach to how the agenda gets set, so that when we sunset in 2012, we try to come up with a sound set of recommendations for the Legislature that would hopefully set up a permanent commission or task force that would continue to monitor efforts in Alaska regarding our oceans. I think we are going to see huge activity.

Petroleum News: What are some of the priorities?

Joule: I guess mostly that we are aware and are responsible, and definitely engaged. I have my own opinion about oil and gas development offshore, but if this is something that is going to happen, how can we benefit from it and how can we safeguard ourselves at the same time? Those are conversations that are happening at the federal level. But as a state what should we be getting excited about and what should we be moving with caution. The same with fisheries and marine transportation. There already is a huge research effort going on, but is it the right kind for the activity that’s being proposed? Are we taking advantage of the science and the research that should be done to ensure the safety of the ecosystems not only in the oceans, but as they come to shore and the people who depend on those things onshore?

Petroleum News: What are your thoughts on offshore drilling?

Joule: I’ll just keep that to myself.

Petroleum News: Is this anything like coastal management?

Joule: There is a huge difference. Actually, they are almost not even related. They may intersect in places. Coastal zone management is about permitting and getting local input into those things that are needed to obtain permits whether large-scale coastal areas or even local efforts such as accessing gravel for communities. All that stuff needs to get permitted. The Northern Waters Task Force, one of the reasons that we put this together, with the advent of climate change there are a lot of things that we became aware of that presented themselves as opportunities and challenges all rolled into one. The legislature and global community were having discussions about these potential events in Arctic waters. The Alaska Legislature was not even in the mix of knowing what those things were. You’ve got the Arctic Council, which the United States has a seat at because of Alaska’s place on the Arctic.

There are others active there. Oil companies, shipping firms, fishing industries and even the coast guard are formulating plans figuring out how do deal with all of these kinds of activities.

We weren’t part of that conversation. Part of all of this effort is to bring us up to speed. There is going to be a need for infrastructure; there is going to be a need for science; there is going to be a need for communications with communities and Alaskans. There is probably going to be at some point some policy calls that we need to be involved in. There could be opportunities for jobs.

But there may be times where we are going to have to deal with mitigation. All of those things taken together is why the Northern Waters Task Force was formed, recognizing of course that as one of the few coastal states in this country, we didn’t have any kind of a way to be plugged into what’s going on with the oceans. Here we had a president and an administration putting together a national oceans council in search of members to sit on a task force. We were nowhere.

Joule: I’m not sure. Let’s see. Could it be things like melting ice? Could it be things like fish moving to colder water? Ocean acidification? Diminishing sea levels? Diminishing sea ice?

Petroleum News: So you have those changes, but there are also events like prospective drilling, right?

Joule: There are things to consider like OCS, whether we like it or not, the north pacific management council, marine shipping, national defense and the need for infrastructure, whether it’s the coast guard or military. All of those may mean potential jobs. Some of the challenges like over-the-top transportation corridors — there are some choke points in the Bering Straits. There is some concern about invasive species that are cling-ons to hulls of ships. With offshore drilling there are concerns about are we prepared to deal with the unfortunate events of potential spills and the destructions of what goes on there? How is that going to impact search and rescue efforts, cleanup efforts? Are we prepared for that? Are we prepared for the potential economic opportunities in terms of workforce and companies? Are we up to speed on what’s going on? There are both sides, and we are trying to bring focus to all of that. Then there is the issue of governance, which I’m not sure I’ve completely wrapped my own arms around: When Russia threw a flag under the water somewhere and started staking a claim. America through Alaska’s position has offered to set boundaries that we may be able to lay claim to, maybe even more so if we pass the Laws of the Sea treaty. That may impact us in a largely more positive way, so there is a lot of stuff out there to consider.

Petroleum News: Shifting gears, but still on resource development, what, if anything would you like to see done with oil taxes? House Bill 110 is stuck in the Senate, what do see happening next year.

Joule: I voted against the oil tax (HB 110) and I think with some modest changes I could vote for it. Back when we did the legislation back in 2007, the House was under a cloud of corruption.

I recognize what we ended up settling on was probably a little bit overboard; we may have taken it a bit too far in my opinion. We probably needed to find a sweet spot that still allows the state to benefit from our resources.

I don’t know that the state or the people in the government are happy with that level but on the other I don’t think the oil companies would have been completely happy with everything.

When the bill comes back up, there is going to be probably a different level of conversation.

Recently BP successfully pulled about 350 barrels of heavy oil, and converted that and shipped it down the pipeline. How does that factor into that discussion?

The president of ConocoPhillips (Jim Mulva) has made some commitments in terms of the type of things what can be expected of them in terms of investment in Alaska. We didn’t have any of that on the House side. Then there is the exploration piece. How do we encourage those who are interested in wildcatting and exploring, finding new sources of oil utilizing the new technology so we can continue to get new barrels of product into the TAPS? So I actually think when the conversation comes up, it’s going to begin at a whole different level with information that we didn’t have prior to this.

Petroleum News: What has been the most important thing for your region as far as resource development?

Joule: Whether it’s the North Slope, which has been primarily onshore development, or at Red Dog Mine, it’s important that the industries have been — I don’t know if willing is the correct word — but the end result is that the caribou populations are still healthy through an oil field and all the infrastructure. People still have access to their land-based food source. We’ve set up systems that by working with local people that can ensure for that. That has probably been the biggest milestone of development in those resource rich parts of the state. All of that did not come easy.

Petroleum News: You were supposed to have completed a trip to Norway, but the special session pushed that back. What did you hope to learn from that trip?

Joule: I was interested in how they conducted their offshore development. I wanted to see what the differences were. I wanted to see how they accomplish some things. I want to see what restrictions they place on industry and still yet see how that development would occur and how does that compare to what is being asked in Alaska. Are we being unreasonable or can this still occur? Being an Arctic nation, they too are going to be impacted by less ice. I want to see what they are doing. How are they planning and preparing for those kinds of times? How do they monitor their fisheries? We don’t have very much by way of commercial fisheries in the north. Is that even an issue there? Then there is the whole piece on infrastructure. So, there is a lot to learn from folks who have been engaged in those things.