Delegation pushes for OCS development

Alaska’s Congressional delegation, Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Rep. Don Young, sent a letter to Interior Secretary Sally Jewell urging that Interior keeps all three oil and gas lease sales scheduled for the Alaska outer continental shelf in the final version of the lease sale program for the years 2017 to 2022. The lease sale program currently includes a Beaufort Sea sale in 2020, a Cook Inlet sale in 2021 and a Chukchi Sea sale in 2022.

The delegation says that the Beaufort and Chukchi seas may hold 23.6 billion barrels of oil and 104.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. An analysis by Northern Economics and the Institute for Social and Economic Research has found that development of these resources could create 35,000 jobs and generate billions of dollars in local and state government revenues, the delegation said.

“The areas under consideration for leasing in Alaska’s OCS contain vast resources that our nation will need to maintain its economy and security,” the delegation wrote. “Those resources can be produced safely if a stable, predictable regulatory regime is put in place. Bringing them to market is favored by most Alaskans and will help maintain affordable energy prices for the American people. With longer lead times and considerable investment required for production in the Alaska OCS, it is critical that the process begins now with new, areawide lease sales.”

The delegation expressed its frustration at the delay and cancellation of lease sales that had previously been scheduled for the Alaska outer continental shelf.

- ALAN BAILEY