Political Quotes

“Mr. President, Senator Sullivan and I introduced a bill, S. 883, the Offshore Production and Energizing National Security Alaska Act of 2017, to lift a damaging Federal moratorium, reopen Alaska's energy-rich Arctic waters to responsible production, and ensure our home State receives a fair share of the revenues from development off our coasts. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the Arctic contains 22 percent of the world's undiscovered, technically recoverable oil and gas resources. The Federal Government projects that the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas alone contain an estimated 23.6 billion barrels of oil and 104.4 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. Yet, despite that prolific potential, the Obama administration spent much of the past 8 years systematically putting the region off limits. It began with the cancellation of lease sales scheduled for our Arctic Outer Continental Shelf. It continued with critical habitat designations, the imposition of burdensome new rules, and a constantly shifting administrative approach that seemed designed to make commercial operations impossible. We saw new withdrawals in our Arctic OCS in early 2015, followed by a decision by President Obama, just days before he left office, to withdraw nearly all of the region from future leasing. Those decisions ran directly contrary to the views of the vast majority of Alaskans, who overwhelmingly support the responsible development of our Arctic OCS.…”