On the recordFebruary 15, 2011
I rise today to introduce two separate bills, S. 351 and S. 352, to open a small portion of the Arctic coastal plain, in my home State of Alaska, to oil and gas development. I am introducing these bills because new production in northern Alaska is vital not only to my State's future, but also to our Nation's energy and economic security. It has been known for more than 3 decades that the 1.5 million acres of the Arctic coastal plain that lie inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge present the best prospect in North America for a major oil and gas discovery. The U.S. Geological Survey continues to estimate that this part of the coastal plain--which represents just 3 percent of the coastal plain in all of northern Alaska--has a mean likelihood of containing 10.4 billion barrels of oil and 8.6 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, as well as a reasonable chance of economically producing 16 billion barrels of oil. Even the relatively recent major finds in North Dakota's Bakken field pale in comparison, as ANWR is likely to hold over four times more oil than any other on-shore energy deposit in North America.
