Murkowski: Alaska challenges ‘pressing’

Back at helm as Senate Energy chair, Murkowski assures Legislature resource development issues are short- and long-term priority

STEVE QUINN

For Petroleum News

U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski returned to Juneau for her annual address to the Legislature and it didn’t take long for her to address resource issues.

She quickly noted her disappointment that Interior Secretary nominee U.S. Rep. Ryan Zinke was not confirmed in time for her to join her for this weeklong visit to “set the right tone” by coming to Alaska.

“Our challenges here in this state are enormous,” she later told the Legislature in the House Chambers. “They are real and they are pressing.”

Murkowski said addressing the challenges starts with land issues.

“We have suffered from this federal mentality of protecting Alaska from Alaskans rather than helping Alaskans build Alaska. That’s what we need to be doing. Helping Alaskans build our state.

“We are going to start here in Alaska by working to restore throughput in our trans-Alaska pipeline. It is possible and it will be done. It is not going to be that every step will be a big step. We can restore access to our federal waters and lease them for production. We can and we will bring the 1002 area of ANWR back into the conversation and seek to finally allow production in this area.”

Murkowski spoke to Petroleum News a few days in advance of her speech about the heavy lifting that awaits her in her second stint as chair for the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Petroleum News: Let’s start with you being in your second year as chair of the Energy Committee. That’s a lot of heavy lifting. What did you learn your first two years?

Murkowski: That is a lot of heavy lifting and I think takeaway comes from the energy bill we tried so hard to move with such incredible success on the Senate side and with such bipartisan support. I think one of my keenest takeaways from the whole experience is recognizing that if you’re not working to drag the House with you every step of the way, you’re just not there. Sen. Cantwell and I kept pointing out that we had such strong bipartisan support in the Senate and we were working with the House counterparts but they have got 400-plus folks over there that you’ve got to get the votes for.

It was a takeaway for me and that’s important so I’m doing my work to build relationships in both the House as well as the Senate on both sides of the aisle on issues that matter when it comes to the energy space. Sen. Cantwell and I are renewed and recommitted to the efforts we made last year with the energy bill. We are going to look to move that again, hopefully in a manner that goes more quickly because we’ve already done it once, and really work to ensure that we reform the policies through legislation that actually gets signed into law. It will be done with a little more emphasis on working with the House.

Petroleum News: What you described reminds me of the style Ted Stevens employed with (former Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye) in brokering compromises across the aisles. Did you learn some of that from Ted Stevens?

Murkowski: Well, I certainly saw it with Ted and his relationship (with Inouye). There was a bond between the two of them. They referred to one another as brothers. You can see that. It was a relationship that stemmed from a common interest being from two states not a part of the continental United States. Ted and Danny built on that. That was an important role model for a lot of us.

On balance, I think it started when I was in the Legislature there. I was just upstairs a little bit ago and talking to some of my team and one of the young men said, “Gosh, one of these nights I’d like to hear some of your stories from the days in the Legislature.” I said, “Oh yea, I had a bad reputation back then of being bipartisan and trying to work across the aisle. It just continues. I’m glad of that. One thing you recognize is there is not one of us that has a monopoly of good ideas. You build good things by reaching out and incorporating strong ideas of others. I like that part of legislating. I really enjoy that part of legislating.

Petroleum News: Speaking of legislating, you and Sen. Sullivan right out of the gate began with an ANWR bill. Does ANWR become more of a reality under the new administration and a GOP-led Congress?

Murkowski: Well I have been saying that ANWR has always been a priority for us in Alaska. The support Alaskans have for opening up the 1002 area has long been there. Still over 70 percent of Alaskans support it because we’ve got an incredible resource. It’s a resource that the country needs. It will benefit Alaska and it will benefit the country. Alaskans know that we can access it responsibly with an eye toward good, strong environmental stewardship. For the same reason it was right to open up ANWR 25 years ago, it’s still smart to try to do that today. We have a new administration that has I think a broader view toward increasing our domestic energy production and decreasing our reliance on others. I view this as an opportunity. The opportunity has always been there because the resource is as strong as it is and, again, with Alaskans’ willingness to see that happen.

Petroleum News: Speaking of opportunity, former President Obama took actions that some people believe went too far such as removing large sections of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas from development. Do you believe any of these measures will be reversed?

Murkowski: I’m one of those people who like maps. They give a good sense of perspective. When you look at a map of Alaska and the areas under federal management, the areas under withdrawal as wilderness areas, the areas that have been under withdrawal from previous administrations whether it’s out in Bristol Bay region, when you overlay what President Obama did toward the end of his term, it is a pretty powerful image of a state that has lost out to access to its land and to its waters.

When you think about the 12A withdrawals and how that takes away an extraordinary opportunity to help refill TAPS: That was an action that really limits Alaska’s ability and our nation’s ability to again have access to our energy resources. When you think about the decision to eliminate the lease sales to both the Beaufort and the Chukchi, again one of the best ways we can refill TAPS and help our energy security.

Then you throw in the designation in the northern Bering Sea, this climate resilience area, we aren’t quite sure how that is going to be implemented going forward. We don’t really know what the impacts will be to commercial fishing or shipping activities. It is yet another act by President Obama made in the waning days of his administration that really was quite damaging in the potential for locking up resource for onshore and off. If there are ways we can help mitigate some of those actions, this delegation is positioning itself to address that.

Petroleum News: Losing the Arctic exploration, what would you like to see accomplished in coming years and do you gain a sense there is enough interest in those areas?

Murkowski: Yes, I do. All you need to do is look at the most recent (state) lease sale. That is a pretty good indicator of continued interest. Look to what we are seeing with the latest news coming out of Caelus up at Smith Bay. Look at Conoco’s recent announcement. There is no shortage of interest. There is no shortage of good news that is coming out of the finds we are seeing up north, when you think about the commitment from those who are operating up there and this commitment from some of the smaller operators too.

Conoco is one of our majors, but the activity we are seeing from mid-sized and smaller exploration companies in terms of where Alaska fits, I think we have good reason to be optimistic. What we need to know is not just that producers can come up and be successful with their exploration - we need to be able to then move that resource. And so how we are able to build out that pipeline from Smith Bay and how we are able to build out from NPR-A, this is where having an administration that is going to work with you rather than against you, in helping facilitate permits in a timely manner, in a manner that is going to be beneficial to all, this is what we’ve been waiting for.

Petroleum News: I realize an energy bill is not Alaska centric, but can some of these finds and discoveries help your efforts as you put together a package?

Murkowski: One of the provisions we had within the package we were moving last year focused on permitting that clearly would help us in our efforts up north. We had other measures that were not part and parcel of the energy bill, but we had separate legislation that would have helped to facilitate greater lease sale activity up north, which I think we recognize that would clearly help us in Alaska. So as we look to reframe an energy bill, I have a great deal of interest that the projects Alaskans are focusing on and those who are operating in our state, that we’ll get good benefit from what it is we are trying to advance.

Petroleum News: What is it you think lawmakers here can do to help you, Sen. Sullivan and Congressman Young?

Murkowski: I think we’re getting good help out of our Legislature. I saw they had just passed a resolution in support of the King Cove road. I believe we just saw a resolution in support of opening ANWR. These types of measures, I used to joke with my former colleague in Juneau that when I was in the Legislature I always wondered if these resolutions we take the time to work up, do they just go into the circular file cabinet, basically send it to Washington, D.C., and they just get pitched.

No, that’s not the case. They are an important part of the record that we are building that shows support for these initiatives. Whether it is King Cove road or ANWR, it’s people in Congress who are voting on these issues, they will never go out to King Cove or they may never see ANWR, but what they want to know is that this issue in two members’ state, that it is supported by the people of that state, it’s supported by the governor, it’s supported by the Legislature. So these resolutions are helpful, and I appreciate the legislators who work with us to do just that.

I recall several years ago Rep. (Charisse) Millett was really leading on the issue of what can we do to clean up legacy wells. She and I were talking before my legislative speech, and I said if you guys can get a resolution in support of this and if we can really raise the profile of this. So I gave my legislative address, they passed a resolution in support, I raised it in my speech and it gets to a point where it’s more than just the legislators who are talking about it. Now the press is talking about it. Now the press back in Washington, D.C., is talking about it. Now we’re having a hearing on it in the Energy Committee.

All of the sudden what was really viewed as an Alaska specific issue, we now have not only lawmakers who are saying what are you doing to clean up that mess up there? What administration are you doing to increase the budget to fund this plan? It’s a very specific example of how, by teaming with the Legislature, we can direct attention to the issues that are important to us that can be resolved at the federal level.

So don’t down play the significance of those.

Petroleum News: Speaking of legacy wells, how are you viewing the progress of the cleanup?

Murkowski: I complain about it all the time. It’s going painfully slow. It should not have been allowed to happen in the first place. The fact that we allowed the government to walk away and decades later now it’s going to take 30 years to clean up. We’ve got a fire under them. They are working with the state to address it. It is a matter of resources. I understand that. We are working at this end to facilitate that. Again, they would not have tolerated it if it had been the private sector that would have walked away without properly shutting down these wells. They would have been fined - they would have been just run out of business. But since it was the government, they effectively got a pass for a while. Now it’s time to clean it up and speed it up. I appreciate the work of so many back home. Cathy Foerster (chair of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission) has done a really good job of bird dogging the regulators on this and I really appreciate that.

Petroleum News: I would love your thoughts on a couple of nominations, starting with (former Texas Gov.) Rick Perry. Even as he comes from an energy rich state, his predecessors have been scientists or PhDs.

Murkowski: I said at his confirmation hearing that I don’t think you have to have a scientist to manage scientists. As you know the last two secretaries have been very brilliant scientists and recognized as such. I had a great relationship with Secretary Moniz and learned a lot from him. I will say I was impressed with my meeting with Gov. Perry. He ran the state of Texas for 14 years and has not only demonstrated himself to be a very effective manager, but also a strong governor at a time when other states were struggling.

When it comes to energy, everybody thinks of Texas as the oil state. They are producing more wind (power) in Texas than I think just about any other state out there. Almost all of it came about under his leadership. He has been held up as some or criticized by some as not being supportive of renewables or just focusing on fossil fuels, but I think they need to look at the track record of Gov. Perry while he was in office and what he did to reduce emissions in his state while at the same time his state’s population was growing and growing dramatically in the urban centers.

I think what we need in DOE right now is somebody who can manage a department that is pretty complex, has oversight of everything from the nuclear side of energy portfolio to the renewables to our national labs to building small micro grids. So I’m looking forward to his confirmation. Hopefully that would be right when we get back the last week in February or early March.

Petroleum News: So how about Ryan Zinke for the Interior post?

Murkowski: I had hoped we were going to get Rep. Zinke confirmed before we left for this February recess. I was really hoping that would happen. Unfortunately he is not in that list so he is next up in the queue. It’s my understanding he will be confirmed at the beginning of the week we return. I think he is a strong choice. I have enjoyed getting to know him. We’ve had some pretty detailed conversations already about the direction he wants to take the department, how he thinks things might need to be reworked a little bit.

It’s a big department with a lot of people. There are a lot of public lands that are not based here in Washington, D C., and he’ll have to make sure that those who are making decisions understand the impact and implications of what it means in these regions. It’s important. I’m looking forward to getting him confirmed pretty quickly.

Petroleum News: And the last one, Ken Pruitt for the head of the EPA.

Murkowski: I supported Mr. Pruitt. I’m not on the committee that had him in front of us so I didn’t have that benefit. I have had good conversations with him. I think that he is a smart man, with good integrity and a desire to really find that balance to make sure across the country that we have clean air, clean water and we’re focusing on achieving just that. We’re doing so in a way that is smart and reasonable. So I think he will do a good job. That’s my hope.

Petroleum News: Once these confirmations are over, what is your mission, to dig into that energy bill again?

Murkowski: I wish that I could tell you that it’s going to be over that quickly. In my committee alone, we have 34 nominees to come before the committee. We have only done two, so I have 32 more to go. Now some of them won’t require their own hearing. I can do three or four at a time. Our reality is we do the personnel end of the shop, and we have hundreds more nominees that we have to get confirmed. So I have those in front of my committee. This means it’s going to be occupying a fair amount of time on the floor. We are going to be working nominations for several more months. Then oh, you throw in we will have a Supreme Court nominee and interspersed between all of this, we have congressional review act measures. So in the committee, we are going to try to push out as many as we can so that both the secretary of Energy and the secretary of Interior can get their teams built. Then we are going to start moving on the energy and public lands initiative. We can double track things. The ranking member and myself, we are women and we can juggle a lot of items in the air at the same time. You can count on us to be doing that.

Petroleum News: Were you among the few who showed up on a snow day?

Murkowski: That’s exactly right: Don’t you forget that. We are going to be busy, but right now the focus has been trying to focus on nominations.