Teamsters Applaud ANWR Development

(Washington, D.C.) – The Teamsters Union commends the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee for taking an important step toward increased energy independence today. By passing a measure that instructs the Secretary of the Interior to move forward with developing the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), the committee also endorsed a key part of the Teamsters' jobs agenda.

"ANWR development will quickly create thousands of jobs with strong wages and benefits," said Teamsters General President James P. Hoffa. "The impact of job growth will go well beyond Alaska and contribute to many states' economies."

The Teamsters, along with more than a dozen other unions, have supported the opening of ANWR for many years. In addition to the immediate jobs that it will create, developing ANWR will advance important technologies for oil and gas exploration, development, production, and transportation well into the future.

"For decades skilled American labor – union labor – has successfully performed the many tasks involved in developing energy on Alaska's North Slope," Hoffa said. "Along with our brothers and sisters in more than a dozen other unions, the Teamsters stand ready to fill the jobs that ANWR will create and get to work developing more American energy for American consumers."

The Teamsters commend Chairman Pete Domenici (R-NM) for skillfully shepherding this proposal through his committee, as well as Alaska Senators Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski for their years of perseverance and commitment to creating jobs in the United States.

"With oil remaining above $60 a barrel and no immediate relief in sight, the continued financial burden affects all American industries," said Hoffa. "Working Americans – especially the hundreds of thousands of Teamsters who start their day by turning the key to a truck – need the energy, the relief and the jobs that opening ANWR will provide now."