|
Letter to the Honorable William Roth, US Senate
Opposing His Legislation to Lock Up the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge
April
26, 1999
The
Honorable William Roth
U. S. Senate
104 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear
Senator Roth:
The
Alaska Legislature totally opposes the introduction of your
bill to permanently lock up the coastal plain of the Arctic
National Wildlife Refuge of Alaska from development. Your
enthusiasm for introducing this bill on Earth Day certainly
was a black day for Alaska.
The
undersigned members of the Alaska Legislature are both Republican
and Democrat, represent both urban and rural areas of our
state, are ardent environmentalists and avid developers --
and we are all united in support of developing the coastal
plain of our northeast corner of Alaska, more commonly known
as ANWR. Congress deliberately set aside this area in 1980
for its oil and gas potential. This potential was determined
by the Department of Interior in 1998 to be in excess of 10
billion barrels of recoverable oil.
Not
only has this legislative session wholeheartedly endorsed
the opening of ANWR through the attached Alaska
Joint Resolution 11, but our Legislature is on record
supporting development for the past 20 years.
For
many years, we Alaskans have worked hard to make certain the
development occurring on our lands equally protects our environment
AND benefits, not only the Alaskan people, but also the people
of our nation. Since 1977, our Prudhoe Bay Oil Field has safely
and steadily supplied America with a significant percentage
of our nation's daily production. Developing ANWR will continue
that stability and fend off the growing threat of foreign
dependence.
Alaskans
support the development of our resources. The Inupiat people
who populate arctic Alaska are on record to the President
with their support. We respectfully request that you, and
the co-sponsors of this legislation, give careful consideration
to dropping this ill-advised proposal. We hope you will accept
our invitation to visit Alaska so that we can show you, first
hand, how very carefully we have protected our environment,
reduced the footprint of development, provided for a stable
economy and helped to protect against America's growing dependency
on a foreign source for our energy needs. We have done this,
not only for Alaska, but also for thousands of American working
families.
Respectfully,
Representative Gail Phillips
Representative Alan Austerman
Representative Ramona Barnes
Representative Ethan Berkowitz
Representative Tom Brice
Representative Con Bunde
Representative John Coghill, Jr.
Representative John Cowdery
Representative Eric Croft
Representative John Davies
Representative Gary Davis
Representative Fred Dyson
Representative Richard Foster
Representative Joe Green
Representative Ben Grussendorf
Representative Andrew Halcro
Representative John Harris
Representative Bill Hudson
Representative Jeannette James
Representative Reggie Joule
Representative Mary Kapsner
Representative Allen Kemplen
Representative Vic Kohring
Representative Albert Kookesh
Representative Pete Kott
Representative Beverly Masek
Representative Lisa Murkowski
|
Representative Carl Morgan
Representative Eldon Mulder
Representative Scott Ogan
Representative Brian Porter
Representative Norman Rokeberg
Representative Jerry Sanders
Representative Harold Smalley
Representative Gene Therriault
Representative Jim Whitaker
Representative Bill Williams
Senator Al Adams
Senator Dave Donley
Senator Lyda Green
Senator Rick Halford
Senator Lyman Hoffman
Senator Pete Kelly
Senator Tim Kelly
Senator Loren Leman
Senator Jerry Mackie
Senator Mike Miller
Senator Sean Parnell
Senator Drue Pearce
Senator Randy Phillips
Senator Robin Taylor
Senator John Torgerson
Senator Jerry Ward
Senator Gary Wilken
|
|
