Subject: Op-Ed re Alaska
From: David Hayes <[email-masked]>
To: John Podesta <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 17 Mar 2015 22:13:17 +0100

John:

I thought you would like my op-ed that the Seattle Times published today,
with my new CAP by-line.  It was prompted by Senator Murkowski and
company's over-the-top response to some of your and the President's
excellent moves in Alaska.

Hope all is well --

David

Rhetoric doesn’t square with reality in Alaska drilling debate
Originally published March 16, 2015 at 5:01 pm

Updated March 16, 2015 at 2:20 pm
[image: The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska,
with the Brooks Range in the distance. (Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times)]The
coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, with the
Brooks Range in the distance. (Steve Ringman/The Seattle Times)

Some places in Alaska are simply too special to open up for oil drilling.
By David J. Hayes <http://www.seattletimes.com/author/david-j-hayes>
Special to The Times

IN January, President Obama announced he will recommend that Congress
permanently protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska as a
wilderness area.

His decision, which preserves the status quo by keeping oil rigs out of the
refuge’s coastal plain, triggered howls of protests from the oil industry
and its allies. The president, according to one Alaska politician, is
putting “Alaska and America’s energy security in serious jeopardy.” U.S.
lands in the state are being “locked up,” said another.

But this rhetoric doesn’t square with reality. The federal government has
sold enough drilling rights on Alaska lands to cover the state of Delaware,
but 99 percent of those lands are sitting idle, waiting for oil and gas
companies to decide to develop them.

Offshore, the Obama administration’s latest drilling proposal puts more
than 92 percent of the Arctic waters off the coast of Alaska on the table
for potential oil and gas development. The proposal also would sensibly set
aside nearshore areas relied upon by Alaska Natives for subsistence hunting
and a wildlife “hot spot” in the Chukchi Sea called the Hanna Shoal.

David J. Hayes is a visiting senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress. He served as deputy secretary of the interior in the Clinton and
Obama administrations.

With ample drilling opportunities already afforded to the oil and gas
industry, we need not, and should not, spoil the pristine expanses of the
Arctic National Wildlife Refuge or the most sensitive waters in the Arctic
Ocean. Some places are simply too special to drill.

To be sure, Alaska is facing its biggest energy challenge in a decade. With
oil prices falling, production from the Prudhoe Bay area sagging, and the
state government’s revenues from oil and gas potentially collapsing,
Alaska’s elected officials are under intense pressure to reverse their
state’s economic fortunes.

Instead of scapegoating the federal government, however, now is the time to
assess the reality of current energy markets and to build an energy plan
for Alaska’s future.

That plan can and should involve responsible oil development, but Alaska
has the opportunity to diversify both its energy portfolio and a state
budget that is more than 90 percent reliant on oil revenue. In particular,
state and federal leaders should place a top priority on bringing Alaska’s
now-stranded natural-gas resources to an eager world market. With 35
trillion cubic feet of gas readily available in already-industrialized
areas on the North Slope, Alaska could meet its own stateside need for
energy and generate large profits. What is needed is a gas pipeline that
would allow deliveries to energy-needy Alaskan cities and to a shipping
terminal for export. Plans for such a pipeline are in the works, and the
federal government should be an eager and willing partner to help make it
happen.

Second, renewable energy can play a growing role in Alaska’s energy future.
With its strong wind resources in coastal villages, round-the-clock solar
energy availability during summer months, and ample biomass energy
production opportunities in Southeast Alaska, Alaska’s renewable resources
can offer affordable, reliable energy supplies in even the most remote
parts of the state. Here, too, a federal and state partnership is
developing small-scale, affordable renewable-energy systems that are
replicable and scalable, potentially providing breakthrough energy
opportunities for small villages throughout the Arctic, and the world.

Finally, when it comes to oil, state and federal leaders should take a
realistic approach that incentivizes the industry to draw additional oil
from existing industrialized fields, such as those in the Prudhoe Bay
region. Advanced technologies that have unlocked oil deposits in the Lower
48, for example, can be applied to Alaska’s shale fields, which are
concentrated on the prolific oil-rich state lands on the North Slope and do
not extend into the Arctic Refuge.

On federal lands, the Obama administration has continued to offer ample
opportunities for new drilling and has worked to improve coordination among
federal agencies on Alaskan energy projects. The U.S. Interior Department,
for example, recently greenlighted a major Conoco-Phillips project in an
area west of Prudhoe Bay, known as the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska,
or NPR-A. And in each of the past five years, the Obama administration has
offered a Connecticut-sized area within the NPR-A to the oil and gas
industry for new leasing and development.

Alaska energy challenges cannot be solved overnight. Shell’s troubled 2012
drilling season
<http://www.doi.gov/news/pressreleases/upload/Shell-report-3-8-13-Final.pdf>
was
a stark reminder of the risks, dangers and expenses of drilling in frontier
areas with limited infrastructure. What is needed now is not rhetoric or
hubris, but realism and thoughtful leadership.

David J. Hayes is a visiting senior fellow at the Center for American
Progress. He served as deputy secretary of the interior in the Clinton and
Obama administrations.

-- 

*David J. Hayes*

*Stanford Law School*
Distinguished Visiting Lecturer in Law

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559 Nathan Abbott Way

Stanford, CA 94305-8610

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