Joule cites importance of local voice

Northwest Arctic Borough major says he spoke for communities in Juneau, now works to have local representation internationally

Steve Quinn

For Petroleum News

Reggie Joule spent 15 years representing the Northwest Arctic Borough and the North Slope Borough as member of the state’s House of Representatives.

Today, he’s Northwest Arctic Borough mayor and member of the state’s Arctic Policy Commission, a group Joule identifies as crucial as the state prepares for the U.S. becoming chair to the Arctic Council next year.

Joule talked to Petroleum News about going from a state representative to mayor and what it means for Alaska to have a role in developing Arctic policy, either for research or resource development.

Petroleum News: As a member of the House, you represented a voice for the indigenous people. Has that changed as borough mayor?

Joule: It’s different in a lot of ways. I’m busier by 10 fold, and I was busy as a legislator. There’s a lot of learning on my part on being an administrator, the executive person, being in a position where the buck stops here. In that way, it’s been different. In terms of giving people a voice, yeah, you can do something on the legislative end, representing a district. When I was representing House District 40 like I was all those years, that included representing places like Shishmaref as part of my district and all the issues they faced (erosion and possible town relocation) and also the North Slope Borough and issues important to them, as well as my home community and home region of the Northwest Arctic. And so coming into this job as mayor of a borough gives me the opportunity to network with the North Slope and the Bering Straits but also be able to focus the discussion more honed into this area.

Petroleum News: So are you still meeting with the same people either in Juneau or Washington but in a different capacity?

Joule: Yeah, to some degree that’s true, but it’s also getting exposure to different venues that I had not had the opportunity to do. Then also getting the opportunity to work with our communities in a different way. So raising issues with the Assembly, letting them know some of the things we are doing. In the event that we have international travel, or other travel in Alaska, making sure we try to include the Assembly, or at least a representative in the Assembly, to be present in those discussions so they have a flavor of what the administration is engaging in with those discussions. While I didn’t have the opportunity to do that in the Legislature, I do have that opportunity here. That is good for our Assembly to be exposed to the range of interests in the Arctic at a global level.

Petroleum News: Speaking to the international communities, where has your work taken you so far?

Joule: We did go to Iceland for the first Arctic Circle forum, held a year ago October. It had a lot of international flavor, with Arctic Council nations and countries interested in the Arctic like Singapore, South Korea, China and some of the European Union nations. A lot of that was people who were either applying for or had been granted observer status with the Arctic Council. Just meeting and hearing that even a tiny little country like Singapore has an Arctic strategy interested me. China has got an Arctic strategy. Countries that span the globe in a lot of ways have this desire to get involved in future development of the Arctic from the perspective of economics. It was really an eye-opener to be able to experience that level of interest because it allowed me to get a little more of a wide-angle view of the interest. You can hear these things from word of mouth and you can read about it, but when you hear directly from these folks about their interests and what’s driving it, that’s really an eye-opener for me. That was in Iceland but we also went over to Belgium for a conference on things like Arctic shipping and to observe the relationship of business and government, and the various industries. It’s a little bit different relationship than we have here in Alaska and even the rest of the country to some degree. It didn’t seem as polarized as we tend to make it here in Alaska.

Petroleum News: So with that in mind, what were your biggest takeaways from your international travel?

Joule: I think the thing that really kind of hit home is that so much of these things, while we can have influence on some of the process, overall there is little that we can control. Take the Bering Straits from the concept of an international waterway. Yeah, it may be U.S. waters and it may be Russian waters, but this is an international marine lane. From that perspective, the commerce that can happen there and what’s going to drive it is going to be market driven. Is it going to be fish from Norway or is it going to be goods from China? While a lot of it is going to be determined, there is a lot that we do not control. One of the things it made me think about is if there is a lot that we do not control, what are the things that we do? How do we prepare to adapt in this new focus and new time where at one point Arctic development and the opening of the Arctic was some time off? Well, that time is here. We are seeing year-by-year the increases of ships and marine traffic.

It just makes you think differently. Some of this depends on who needs what where in this world. We are just a highway, a way to get past by. On the other end of it, there will be infrastructure needs that I think Russia and the United States, as the bordering countries, are going to have to begin to build up. Russia is well on its way. The United State is just waking up to it. There are investors out there, who want to know how they can invest their money to get a return, and they want to know is there a role for us to play in some that?

Petroleum News: You talk about infrastructure. Would that be a priority for you as it seems to be for others, getting various pieces of infrastructure in place ahead of development that may or may not be ours?

Joule: I think we have to be aware of some of that. We have to be engaged in those discussions. The city of Kotzebue for some time has taken the lead with the support of NANA regional corporation and the borough, for some sort of marine landing, whether it’s called a port or a harbor. Are there transportation things that we need to do and what are the industries that want to come up? On one side, we’ve got Gov. Parnell’s Roads to Resources led by AIDEA for the potential of mining and how we engage in the EIS. That’s a necessity that needs to occur while making sure the residents impacted are informed.

As we look at the results, we can determine whether or not we want to be supportive of it or not. Using that kind of information to see and get to what’s in it for us. What are the job prospects? Will it reduce our cost of living? Will there be cheaper energy? What’s going to be the access in and out if there are roads? Or is it going to be limited because it’s an industry road? How do we develop our people with all of this infrastructure, whether it’s ground transportation, port authorities, interties? All of it. How do we prepare for all of this? How do we prepare with the Coast Guard with search and rescue. What do we need to be ready for in the event of spill response - because right now we are naked in terms the ability to be of any help to anybody. And whose responsibility is it to do what? All of that in dealing with our communities challenged with erosion and whether or not they may need to move for their safety. There are a lot of things our borough and our region are generally engaged in those conversations.

Petroleum News: Let’s talk about spill response. There have been several people who live up there, people like Rep. Ben Nageak in Barrow, who say that needs to be a priority, even ahead of Shell and ConocoPhillips developing, because any oil spill could come from outside the U.S. What are your thoughts on that?

Joule: That’s true. We need to have some capability from the shore. There are a lot of questions that need to be answered. What all that means and who is going to provide it and pay for it, how much of it will be under the Coast Guard purview, do we have what the Coast Guard may need in a given geographic area; do they have resources at the closest point to where they may need to deploy; are there going to be search and rescue responses for any given situations that we don’t have; where is the technology taking us? The indications are based on currents that happen in a major or not so major way, the impact will likely be felt on Alaska’s coastline. In addition to those involved with outer continental shelf activities, and the need to have their response for what our regulations will require of them to be prepared, will there be an opportunity to use them as a Good Samaritan in case something happens in other international waters? So there really is a lot to take in there.

Petroleum News: So do you believe that resource development on the Arctic waters can work, coexist with the lives and livelihoods with the people who live up there?

Joule: Well, let’s look at the 40-year history at Prudhoe Bay. I think that question has been answered over the last 40 years. The question about Red Dog over the last 30 years. The question is about balance and how that is going to work in the marine world is something yet to be determined. Yet you have the marine mammal coalition and the potential of them working with the Coast Guard and developing water way safety committees, choosing the models from the continental United States that can have some application here.

I think some of that, as it is, we have to answer those questions on the U.S. side when we have the environmental impact studies, and are asking the questions about what’s the research needed to get answers to those questions, but also what are the levels of adaptations that need to occur, educationally or otherwise? How do we deal for ramping up for potential healthcare services, public safety, schools if there is going to be growth? What are going to be the stress points of that? The larger question is can we bring some of those opportunities to shore, but also what is the level of communication? Do we have an understanding of the kind of cargo? How are we doing to know what’s there and what’s passing through our waters?

Petroleum News: Those are certainly a lot of questions, even as some of the history bodes well for what may be ahead. Are you getting answers to some of those questions?

Joule: To some extent, I think we are. There has been research going on with the North Slope Borough through their wildlife division for quite a number of years where baseline data is done, where indigenous people have worked hand-in-hand with scientists in developing those kinds of questions, for instance understanding the population of whales, the movement and the habits and other things in the marine world. Some of those questions are being answered and some of that kind of research has been conducted in the Bering Straits area.

For many of us, the questions we are asking is what will be the impact to our renewable resources, as the changes occur and as these things unfold. I would say yes that some of the questions are being asked and answered. I think there are still many more questions. As we answer some, it probably brings up new questions. The Northwest Arctic Borough has been engaged in a subsistence mapping program funded in part by the federal government, by Shell, by ConocoPhillips and NGOs. We are in the last year of putting that together for seven of our 11 communities.

We are looking to find additional funding to do the same kind of thing for the remaining four communities. We used that to initiate with Shell a $1.2 million grant to begin a research arm of this borough. We are looking for a director/coordinator for that effort. That’s all been within the last year. Research and science are huge industries unto themselves. Having a seat at that table is very important and we’ve been working our way toward that. So to answer your question, yes some of those questions have been asked and answered, and there are many still out there.

We need to figure out where the gaps are, how do we approach it and how to we build partnerships with the North Slope Borough and with the Bering Straits so that it’s complete along the coastline and there is a level of collaboration between the different jurisdictions. In that regard, I think we’ve been involved in some really neat things that will have a long lasting impact. Part of the question then becomes when we run out of grant money, how are we going to pay for it all? When you get a good baseline, you get a good snapshot of what happens at a given point, but how often does that data need to be updated so that it’s current and is not information that is outdated, therefore relevant?

Petroleum News: Let’s talk about the Alaska Arctic Policy Commission. What kind of value has come from the commission?

Joule: the Arctic Policy Commission is doing necessary work. It’s bringing a diverse group of people to look at our state from multi dimensions, different interest groups, the Legislature, the administration, NGOs, industry and indigenous people. The work is necessary especially now that the federal government is developing an Arctic policy and Arctic strategy coming. How that works with what we are doing is very relevant. The indigenous people of the Arctic, whether we are talking about tribes, corporations, Native people in general terms, whether were are talking cultural adaptation, they are all important and I’ll bring up one of them: subsistence. How do we deal with that moving forward? We operate on two different levels, the federal level and then there is state level, and sometimes those are not in alignment.

Raising those questions of subsistence and the absence of coastal zone management, and whether or not we need to take a look at that as a state, because that has opportunities with the federal government if we choose. There are economic opportunities I think we can’t ignore, some of which we will be in favor of, some of which we may be in opposition to, but having those dialogues with the different industries is important because we will look at what’s in it for us. We’ve an energy state for 40 years and there are some things that are still lacking here. We have some of the highest costs of living in the Arctic, in this borough in particular. The cost of energy is very high. Other than a place like Red Dog, there’s not a lot of opportunity to have an economy for all of the people in the communities. So how do we prepare our people for all of this?

Petroleum News: The U.S. takes over as Arctic Council chair. What would you like to see happen in those next few years, either with Alaska having a role or otherwise?

Joule: I think that’s yet to be determined. It’s going to take some coordination and communication. The areas of the state that really are the Arctic part of Alaska are sitting down with each other and paying attention to that.

What I find lacking now in this endeavor, although I think that gap will be closed, is the communication that needs to take place between the United States and the different publics, if you will, in Alaska. The state and the feds are certainly talking. There is more discussion taking place with Admiral (Robert) Papp as the new representative from the State Department and Fran (Ulmer) as the advisor from the science end of things. To me, one of the things that’s missing in that is the inclusions of indigenous people. There is not an indigenous person who is part of that team. I think that needs to change. Other countries seem to be able to tap into and recognize contributions of indigenous people at those high levels. We have those caliber of people in our state.