Political Quotes

“this lease is from the native village of Venetie. It has the signatures of Sarah James and a number of others. It is dated April 2, 1984, and it specifically states that the acreage offered under the lease is 1,799,927.65 acres, U.S. Survey 5220. That is where we are relative to the issue of some of the folks who feel that this is not in their interest, but by a long shot that is not all the people. I point this out not to condemn the attitude of my constituents but just to point out a reality that at one time they were willing to sell their interest in leasing this land for oil and gas, and now, to a large degree, their public relations efforts are funded by the Sierra Club and others. I will submit at a later time the specific financial contributions that are paid to the Gwich'in by the various environmental organizations. What is happening in Alaska is a molding of our State into the image that much of America's environmental community would like to see established as opposed to the reality associated with the population of our State, some 700,000, and the fact that we are the new kids on the block. We have been a State for 41 years. We don't own our own land. Here is the land ownership in Alaska, unlike Illinois or California or any other State. We have 368 million acres in our State. What is it made up of? Let's look at private land ownership in our State: 5 million acres; less than 2 percent. Why is that? Because the Federal Government owns it. OK?”