Lisa Murkowski

The President could not have nominated two more qualified individuals to fill these seats.

It is not very often that I get to come to the Judiciary Committee to introduce Alaskans to you, so today is a special treat.

That merit selection process was created by the Alaska Constitution. It was intended really to keep politics out of the judicial selection process.

Both Justice Christen and Judge Gleason have survived this selection process, and I think survived it most admirably.

Mr. Lyman has no grounds to imply that electric cooperative deployment of SMRs raises safety, security or proliferation concerns beyond those raised by deployment by investor-owned utilities.

That's not saying much. Because we know how long it takes.

I would suggest that we also need to be looking at economic security.

I certainly appreciate what my colleague, Senator Manchin, has been drilling at and what Senator Barrasso said.

But I do think that we recognize that when it comes to meeting our energy needs it is important that we focus on North America.

I hope that they'll play a larger role in our policy conversations as we look at the role that nuclear power can play in meeting our energy needs and reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.

Yes, we need to be working to reduce our emissions. But as Senator Manchin has said, there are technologies that we can be advancing in this country that allow us to use our most affordable resource.

I do lose a lot of sleep over the reliance that we have on Middle Eastern sources of oil and how we reconcile that.

I think we all recognize that in certain parts of Canada the product that we get whether it's from Alberta or what might be coming from the Keystone pipeline. This is pretty significant to us in terms of supply.

I think what we continue to looking for is some level of certainty as to this process and the timelines.

Well, I appreciate that, General. I know that you've spent considerable time in Alaska looking at the operations there at Greely.

So it really does give us that full umbrella of protection that we talk about when we discuss the advantages of a missile defense system that truly does cover all of the United States?

I think we recognize that the system is effective also against missile threats to the east coast by actors that may be out there in the Middle East.

So essentially the $4 million that you indicate that it will take to put it into this storage mode allows us a level of flexibility, the option, if you will, if we need to, to reconfigure.

Well, I think your visits help to contribute to good strong morale and commitment to the work as well.

I strongly urge the committee to table this bill once and for all.

We respectively ask that you vote no on Senate Bill 730.

Vital habitat for fish and wildlife will be lost as Sealaska clear cuts valuable Old Growth Reserves, and ship's the timber and jobs overseas.

I'm hopeful that with passage of this legislation the strength of the Southeastern economy can continue in an upwards trajectory.

It is important that we finally get to that point where we are able to bring a resolution to this issue.

But at the end of it you recognize that you cannot make every interest 100 percent happy.