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Arctic Power annual meeting billed as last by all speakers Victory in sight for ANWR, but speakers say grassroots effort critical to success Steve Sutherlin PNA Managing Editor
Speakers at the Arctic Power annual meeting Dec.18 at the Captain Cook Hotel in Anchorage had a common theme: this annual meeting would be the last.
Fenton Rexford, president of the Kaktovik Inupiat Corp. of the Village of Kaktovik, said his village, the only settlement within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, has worked with Arctic Power to bring oil development to the area for the benefits it will bring, such as adequate water and sewer in the village.
“We’re trying to catch up with the modern world,” he said. “We have lived in the area for thousands of years, and we have seen whalers, trappers, military and now oil and we are living quite well.”
Rexford compared the cooperative effort to land oil development to the landing of a whale, which can be opened up to get oil, but it takes teamwork to pull it up on the beach.
“There’s just a little more to pull,” he said: “We’ll share the benefits of the whale, as is our tradition, not only among the villagers but with the people of the United States.”
Labor report: Jerry Hood Jerry Hood of the Teamsters said the ANWR effort is the broadest-based coalition he has ever worked on, encompassing labor and management, Native and non-Native, industry and government.
He said the support of individuals and organizations in Alaska is very important to the effort in Washington, D.C. The involvement of labor made a large difference in turning the issue around. In January, there was no labor coalition, Hood said, but in March, labor came forward, and there was an effect on the vote in the House.
“They said it would never pass the House, and it did,” Hood said. “Labor helped re-frame the debate on ANWR. It’s no longer caribou, it’s jobs.”
Hood said 2.2 million jobs have been lost in this country since the last election, but that an energy bill with ANWR included would put hundreds of thousands of people to work at decent jobs, at a decent income, and with health care and benefits.
Opponents of ANWR development are aware that broad-based support for development is threatening to derail their anti-development agenda, Hood said. Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle underscored the support for ANWR development by his defensive tactics.
“(Daschle) jerked the energy bill from committee because he knew Frank Murkowski had the votes to take it to the floor,” Hood said.
Democrats are risking the loss of the labor vote by courting radical environmentalists, Hood said, adding that the most recent presidential election might have been lost by a misplaced emphasis on the environmental vote.
“Gore sided with the limousine liberals and society environmentalists and lost the blue collar vote in West Virginia, a loss of five electoral votes.”
The Teamsters Union is not in the pocket of any party, Hood said. He read a statement from James Hoffa, president of the Teamsters union: “The 1.4 million members of the Teamsters union refuse to be taken for granted. We have no permanent friends, only permanent interests.”
“Sticking it to workers seems to be the most bipartisan pastime in Washington,” Hood said. “We can be bipartisan too.”
Legislative report: Sen. Frank Murkowski “Frank Murkowski made ANWR a national issue when he persuaded George Bush to make ANWR a part of his platform,” oil ands gas consultant Roger Herrera said in his introduction of Sen. Frank Murkowski. “Frank leads from the front, not the rear, and he is the prime architect of our success.”
Murkowski said the delaying tactics employed by the opposition frustrated him, considering “the dimension of what ANWR will mean to the whole country.”
Workers have rallied around the issue, and that most recently veterans have supported ANWR development because of its national security implications, he said.
It is important to continue pro-development efforts, because the opponents are well organized, Murkowski said. Many young attorneys come to Alaska on a mission. Environmental organizations with offices in Alaska have risen from 60 a few years ago to 92 today. Environmental groups see Alaska as a source of money and members, he said.
Murkowski said environmental claims that the oil supply in ANWR is insignificant don’t hold water. A source of oil that would displace Iraqi oil is significant because oil income funds that country’s development of missiles and biological weapons. In fact, Murkowski said, oil income keeps Saddam Hussein alive because it pays the Republican Guard that protects him.
Murkowski echoed statements that energy bill opposition in the Senate is tied to political aspirations of individual senators.
“I’m having a little problem with Tom Daschle. Something happens to people when they have illusions to run for president — he has that,” Murkowski said, adding that Daschle also has a feeling that a candidate can have tremendous votes and power if he wins the support of the environmental lobby.
Murkowski said he was quoted by host Robert Novak on the CNN program, “Evans, Novak, Hunt & Shields,” during an interview of Daschle Dec. 8. The subject was Daschle’s maneuvering of energy legislation out of the Senate Energy Committee.
Murkowski had said the abuse of the legislative process was outrageous and reprehensible, and that partisan legislation was being advanced behind closed doors without a whimper from the press, Novak told Daschle.
Daschle responded that the ploy was something Republicans have been doing for years.
That is false, Murkowski told Arctic Power. The ANWR issue is “big bucks, big pressure, and big power,” he said, and as such, opponents feel the end justifies the means.
Murkowski said Sen. Ted Steven is also frustrated with opposition tactics, particularly with filibuster threats.
Stevens said: “Never has there been a filibuster on an issue of national security.”
Murkowski said energy legislation will likely come up in the Senate in February, but there is no commitment from the Senate leadership to finish the issue.
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