Lisa Murkowski

Before I comment on a couple of concerns that I have with the USFS budget request, I would like to raise a recent court decision that I believe has the potential to severely hamper the ability of the USFS to get work done on the ground.

So, are you suggesting then that the cost benefit analysis will still be coming to us?

I am of the mind that the Interior Department needs to go back and actually calculate whether the consolidation of administrative functions is really worth pursuing.

Are you concerned that what might result is lower bonus bids coming out, less production on Federal lands, which then results in less revenue to the Treasury?

So, has there been any assessment on the impact to small businesses that may be on the Federal lands?

Will that information be shared publicly, or will there be provisions that will allow for protecting any trade secrets that might exist?

One of the concerns that I'm hearing from folks is that the concern that these will be overlapping or duplicative regulations.

I want to add a couple more questions to the inquiry from Senator Tester on fracking.

The congressional intent was that part of these new fees be used to expand the capacity so that we could expedite the orderly development of offshore there.

I do think it was prudent that we conducted this study.

I think it causes developers to look to develop on State and private lands before they would turn to our public lands.

Well, we need to be working on this together, so I appreciate that.

If you were on the private side, you would be fined--I think the fines that we're talking about could be in the realm of $40 million.

The environmental standards are exceptionally high--and I think appropriately so. We want to make sure that we're taking care of the land there.

I understand that. And I will, in probably my next round here, ask about some of those incentives or disincentives that we impose that kind of pushes, those that are in the exploration and production realm, to go from Federal lands to…

People really do want to understand what the situation here is in this country.

I'm trying to understand our data here.

It's always nice to have an Alaskan at the helm.

If fisheries were under the Secretary's jurisdiction here, we could probably ensure better salmon dinners

So you really haven't invested any time or effort to see how those synergies might come together?

I would recommend you start alphabetically with the States.

I appreciate the budget constraints that you are dealing with.

I believe we need to make sure we honor that principle of getting a fair return.

I just have a small handful of questions remaining here.

I know probably Senator Murkowski, who is on top of these things in the Arctic, is also very cautious...