Lisa Murkowski Asks Energy Nominee About Determining ‘Appropriate’ Off-Shore Development

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During a Senate Energy Committee hearing last week, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) questioned Leslie Beyer, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Lands and Minerals Management, about off-shore development in Alaska.

Transcript

00:00Smiling because I was given a statement from Senator Murkowski who was before

00:08this committee or on this committee in July 15th 1986 and apparently at that

00:14time my father introduced you Mr. Garish to the committee as you were being

00:23nominated to become the federal inspector for the Alaska natural gas

00:27transportation system so as my colleague has said there's a few from the Reagan

00:33days that not only understand things but understand things so well that they are

00:39they are back yet again so a little bit of committee history here so just want to

00:47acknowledge that Ms. Beyer I want to speak to you a couple questions here and I

00:53love your connections to Alaska it takes tough individuals to run the the mayor's

01:00marathon and just love the fact that you like to spend family time up there so

01:08you're familiar with Alaska the last time we had a Senate confirmed ASLM position

01:15was an Alaskan Joe Baylash he obviously got a lot of these issues that are before

01:21interior before BLM and you're going to be asked to pick up a lot in this space as

01:29you well know I know that you are familiar with the no more wilderness

01:34clause that was contained that is contained in an Elka I just need your your

01:40commitment to me and to the committee that you will ensure that BLM and other

01:44agencies under your purview abide by this no more clause and and even going a

01:53little bit beyond that whether or not you'd be willing to work with the

01:56delegation to evaluate what has happened in Alaska since passage of Anilka as a

02:02result of of BLM's oftentimes unilateral decisions to withdraw more and more land

02:10from public access so just a willingness to to work with the delegation on this

02:14absolutely ma'am given my personal affinity for the state it's one of the

02:19things that I am most looking forward to working on if I am confirmed and I look

02:24forward to spending time there and working with you on all those issues good we

02:28will invite you back often and speaking of of Alaska land conveyances as as you

02:34know we're dealing with the lifting of outdated public land orders long long

02:41overdue land conveyances that are owed under our Alaska Statehood Act as well as

02:48Native Claims Settlement Act we have to resolve submerged lands issues these are

02:54matters that require a great deal of detail time and resources but we've been a

03:03state now for for long enough and I think some of these promises that were

03:07made at statehood need to be completed we need your help to that and we just

03:12like your commitment to that absolutely ma'am if I'm lucky enough to be

03:15confirmed I look forward to working on that good good good and last question to

03:18you I know you're not in the building yet but the department has just recently

03:23announced a new five-year program for offshore development as well as what

03:29they're calling a new high arctic planning area and I get where the

03:35administration is coming from it's basically put everything on the table

03:38and then figure out how we might want to winnow some of this back actually where

03:44we want leasing to occur as you well know in Alaska there are places that we

03:49seek to develop aggressively responsibly and then there are areas that we don't so

03:55I would just ask your commitment again that you would work with the Alaska

03:58delegation we've got Alaskans that are here in the room as part of Alaska Day

04:03today but especially our North Slope leaders to determine where leasing is

04:09appropriate and perhaps not appropriate with it within the Alaska OCS

04:13absolutely I look forward to being briefed on the details of that and I will

04:17take a very close look at it very good appreciate that mr. Abbey I am going to

04:22give you an opportunity to share a little bit of your vision here you don't have

04:26much time but you have spent a lot of time thinking about many of these things

04:32you mentioned the the vision that you have for the critical minerals and and

04:36the specific outlook but is is is what we were able to accomplish when it came to

04:44lifting the oil export ban and again the strategy the implementation can can we do

04:51this with critical minerals can we do this with LNG exports is this something

04:58that in your new role you you think you can bring to the table looking at the

05:06objective analytical data that the EIA brings to bear but can we develop can we

05:12work towards developing better us strategic approaches to these very

05:18important issues thank you senator for the question in my view objectivity is a

05:24discipline is something that you can practice and in various capacities I have

05:29been an objective steward of data in other capacities I've been a policy I've had

05:36more of a policy role as if confirmed as administrator I would no longer be in a

05:40policymaking role but I I do believe that the crude oil export debate illustrates

05:46the importance of EIA there were a lot of think tanks and consulting firms that

05:50were writing reports about crude oil exports but all of them were using EIA

05:54data EIA data to borrow ranking member Heinrich's term once again this common set

05:59of facts and I think the EIA can absolutely play a critical role in helping

06:04anybody who is trying to develop any kind of energy policy to equip them with the

06:09information that they need it's a good answer thank you I appreciate it thank you Mr. Chairman I learned from the best

06:16thank you thank you Senator Murkowski yeah Ms. Byer I'd like to start with you if

06:21that's okay yeah we I'm sorry I forgot Senator Cortez Masto that was very bad

06:31you're up to bat thank you well as chairman I respect that your position so

06:35thank you

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