A group of about 100 people from the public and Alaskan energy agencies gathered in Anchorage Monday to address the U.S. Department of Interior’s five year plan for oil and gas lease sales.
Carl Portman with the Resource Development Council of Alaska…
Portman: “In January alone the federal government moved to forever block energy development on the coastal plain of ANWR, our greatest onshore energy prospect, and close nearly 10 million acres of offshore areas to development. These two actions essentially put off limits more than 10 million barrels of oil.”
Former Leiutenant Governor Mead Treadwell spoke about his previous meetings with leaders of many Arctic nations who agreed there will always be arguments over exploration in their areas.
Treadwell: “What we couldn’t work out was this argument in national capitals that says should we or shouldn’t we? Because we’re not sure, we might feel guilty about climate change or we might feel guilty about the wilderness or we might feel guilty about something else. And we said why don’t you feel guilty about working with the people who live in the community who want a better life and want to make things happen.”
Small business owner and lifelong Alaska Angela Cernich told the story of her German grandfather and Athabascan mother who were pioneers in Alaska.
Cernich: “Yes they loved the land and the park like setting they lived in, they understood the land and the circle of life. For instance, do not kill anything you do not need for survival. That’s a cute little story about a squirrel I had to eat one time, taught me a great lesson. Yet they knew that progress was something that must be embraced. And I believed that they would have embraced the development of the federal offshore in the Arctic, Beaufort, and Chukchi Seas. Now I’m not saying just go in and drill baby drill, that’s never been my motto. However I do believe in the U.S. taking the lead in Arctic exploration by setting a high environmental standard.”
The Interior’s Draft Proposed program was published on Jan 29, 2015, with a 60-day comment period that will conclude on March 30, 2015.