Issue Position: Energy

Issue Position

"Dependence on imported oil, particularly from the Middle East, has become the elephant in the foreign policy living room." -- Lieutenant Colonel John M. Amidon USAF

America must make every effort to move toward energy independence, focusing on developing our natural gas reserves and emphasizing "greener" technologies. This is a win-win situation for all Americans: it improves the environment, it reduces our trade deficit, it reduces our reliance on third world suppliers and it brings more jobs and income to the United States and the State of Alaska.

The largest single undeveloped reserve of hydrocarbons in North America is the natural gas reserve on the north slope of the Brooks Range. For the past thirty-five years, we have not only not exploited this resource, but much of it has literally gone up in smoke. I introduced legislation in the Alaska House of Representatives to persuade oil companies to construct a gas pipeline to bring this resource to market and they resisted. In the United States Congress I will relentlessly pursue the development of this pipeline, through legislation and education of the public.

On November 9, 2009 I wrote a letter to the president of the United States urging him to make the Alaska natural gas pipeline a top national priority. With the full weight of the president behind the Alaska gas line we can remove the roadblocks and uncertainty and get this project moving. It will take years to manufacture the 2.5 million tons of steel needed for the project. We should guarantee the purchase immediately while demand for steel is low, to put Americans back to work and shorten the timetable of the project. From the oil fields of Alaska to the steel mills of the Northeast and Midwest, the construction of an Alaska natural gas pipeline would create tens of thousands of construction, engineering, manufacturing, service and transportation jobs all across the nation. Bringing Alaskan natural gas to market would also generate billions of dollars worth of revenues, production taxes, and economic growth for the country. Beyond this, natural gas is an inexpensive energy source and is the cleanest burning of all fossil fuels, which would help us reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

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