'I've Got A Lot To Say And I Think You Know It's Not Good Feelings': Lisa Murkowski Reams Haaland

my time to ask questions um but this morning I'm probably going to be talking more than asking questions because quite honestly I've got a lot I've got a lot to say and I think you know it's not um it's not good feelings right now the state of Alaska is looking at what is coming out of the Department of interior and they're not saying a single thing that alaskans are asking of interior that is actually advancing it seems like every single decision coming out of the department is working against alaskans you know it was it was a pretty tough week um just a couple weeks ago now in one day in one day the department closes off 13 million Acres of our petroleum Reserve in the same day you rejected the Amer Access Project and the the heartburn here I mean it's not more than heartburn the the danger here is you this is a project that is literally guaranteed by federal law and you basically have rejected that and closed that off You released a major land plan where it took interior 10 full years to fail to meet the direction of a law that I wrote 20 years ago it was to lift the PLO uh public land orders in Alaska but it took no time at all to to close off Millions more acres in the state of Alaska and again the kick on all of this is you did it all on the same day one day one day we have actually come to dread Fridays in Alaska because that's when we see the stuff coming out of Washington DC that is burying Alaska and our economy these decisions are now piled on top of dozens of others from your conservation rule to the cancellation of the leases in the 102 area to the to the looming kneecapping of the oil and gas program in the area that you're mandated to carry out you know when there's a lot of history in Alaska you know you know much of it but when signing anilka President Carter promised the deal was 100% of Alaska's offshore and 95% of our onshore would be open to responsible development President Biden voted for that law he voted for anelka but his administration led by your department has broken its promises to alaskans again again and again and again and we've kept our side of the bargain here we've been working to do this just that our environmental record is second to none we'll put it up against anyone out there but now it's effectively being held against us because interior's decisions are punishing us for decades of responsible development and ironically it's it undermines the president's own policies he's talking about all that he wants to do to advance the Renewables and EVS they all require critical Minerals Well where are we going to get the critical minerals we have opportunities in Alaska and a road to those minerals could have been hopefully one day will be a way that we're accessing that but in addition to all of this you're setting a precedent for future administrations to ignore the law we pass things in Congress we put the laws in place and the administration does whatever they please and it's doing nothing to protect the environment because we know that our projects are going to have small Footprints we we put in place the strongest safeguards in the world here you've heard it before but the headline is true this Administration is sanctioning Alaska we're sanctioning Alaska while we're boosting foreign resources and you don't pay attention you overlook the pollution the human rights abuses the regimes that that it enables from Russia and Iran and and in the meantime you've got a president that seems to think that Willow is enough to sustain an entire State the administration here has effectively reduced Alaska to nothing more than a debit card to pay off National Environmental groups in an election year and I know I know that that's tough I know that that's tough but we can't look at it any other way there is no valid reason there is no good excuse for interior decisions the department needs to follow follow the law they need to follow the law they need to consult with all Alaskan natives all Alaska Natives and frankly I think clean house at the BLM I uh I want you to give this some thought because we're going to have an opportunity next week at interior Appropriations for me to ask more questions to ask questions but I want you to think about this what what justifies this what justifies this singling out of one state of one state alone to treat Alaska in this way and in this manner where you are effectively not only locking up the resources you are you are going against our statehood compact you're going against uh the laws that we have passed and and uh and against policies that seemingly as an Administration you should support it seems like we are we're we're the giving tree with more and more being taken from US every year but we don't know that there is that much more to give so again I'll look forward to the opportunity uh in the interior committee or the subcomittee to ask these questions you probably won't be looking forward to it as much as I will but I think alaskans deserve some answers Senator hicken Looper thank you Mr chair uh thank all of you for your uh for being here today but also for your your service um

Channel: Forbes Breaking News

Views: 52,571

Keywords:

Id: xeqh3NKSJZQ

Length: 6min 4sec (364 seconds)

Published: Mon May 06 2024