Congressional Budget for Fiscal Year 2004

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, it is actually quite fortuitous I am standing before you tonight. I have not spoken on the floor but once since I have been here in my new role as the junior Senator from Alaska. But I stand before you tonight to do the one thing I have been asked by the residents, the people of Alaska to do, and that is to work for jobs, for a sustainable economy for my State and for my constituents. So to stand tonight to talk about ANWR and what ANWR means not only to my State but to all of America is, as I say, significant because ANWR is about jobs, it is about the economy, it is about economic security, domestic energy production. It is also about Native rights in my home State, and it is about common sense.

I have been listening very closely to the comments that have been made tonight, some by my fellow colleague from Alaska, quite passionately arguing the facts. We have seen some beautiful pictures, and we have seen some numbers thrown around. I think it is so important that we put into perspective what ANWR really is, what it means. To do that, we have to go back a bit in history. We have to look to the history of ANWR.

We have known about ANWR's oil potential since the early 1900s. It was in 1913, 1914 that the U.S. Geological Survey found strong indications of oil. So we have known that oil reserves, strong oil reserves, are on the North Slope.

This area now known as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was originally created in 1960 by Executive order under the Eisenhower administration. This Executive order has been pointed to a couple times tonight. It seems that it has been construed that it was recognized by this order that somehow ANWR, the Coastal Plain, should be reserved as some wilderness or should be put off limits. It is important to go back to the language of that Executive order so we understand clearly what President Eisenhower recognized in 1960.

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I was commenting a moment ago about the desire or the willingness of Alaskans to take on ANWR development, that we are receptive to it. Earlier, on the floor this evening, the good Senator from California mentioned, and I believe had printed in the RECORD, a statement of opposition to drilling from a tribal entity. I have not seen that. I am not certain from where it came.

But I would like to also have in the RECORD that the Alaska Federation of Natives, which is the federation of all the Natives in the State of Alaska, has passed a resolution in support of the opening of ANWR and urging the Congress "to adopt legislation to open the Coastal Plain area of ANWR to an environmentally responsible program of oil and gas leasing and development." I ask unanimous consent that this resolution be printed in the RECORD.

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, this is, obviously, an issue that generates a lot of passion. We have seen that on the floor this evening. It has generated a lot of facts and figures. I would caution people to look critically at the facts. Make sure they add up.

We have heard discussion from a couple of different individuals tonight about the amount of oil that is out there. And is it a 6-month supply? And, if so, we surely should not open up ANWR.
As was pointed out by my fellow Senator from Alaska, that is assuming there is no other source produced domestically or used domestically. It is an overt effort to skew the facts to one side's advantage.

In a debate such as this, it is critical that we know that our facts are sound, that our science is sound. So I ask people not to be swayed by the emotion. Caribou are beautiful animals, but I can tell you, we are caring for the caribou, our caribou are doing fine, our caribou are multiplying at a wondrous rate, and they are doing it around the areas of development.

So it is important to try to show the rest of the country what ANWR is. But keep in mind, these little, tiny brief snapshots of a flowered field, with beautiful mountains in the background, are not where the 1002 area is that we are intending to drill. We are intending to drill an area that is the size of the Pinehurst Golf Resort in North Carolina, in an area that looks like the Moon.

I appreciate the hour. I appreciate the attention to this issue because in my State there is nothing more important that is happening. I would certainly encourage my colleagues tomorrow to listen intently to the debate.

I hope we move forward on oil and gas exploration along Alaska's Coastal Plain and oppose the Boxer amendment.