Ted Stevens

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I was waiting for Senator Domenici. I think Senator Chafee was waiting for time.

Mr. STEVENS. I yield myself just 1 minute while the Senator from Connecticut is here. We have 77 percent of all the wild refuges in the United States in Alaska. We are talking about 2,000 acres out of almost 90 million acres of land. I don't understand people who stand here and say save this pristine part of the United States. I invite all of them--I will take them up there right now and let them see the Arctic Slope. It is frozen tundra. Look at this map. That shows how much of this area is withdrawn. The Senator from California says it is 95 percent--look at it. If you go from the coast on the Arctic coast of Alaska, it is not open. The only part of Federal land that is really open now is 1.5 million acres that was left open by the Jackson-Tsongas amendment. The rest of it is closed. I reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, the Senator from California could not be more in error about the amount of land on our north arctic shoreline. It is not 95 percent open. There is the naval reserve No. 4. That is 52 percent of the coastline closed. She knows it is closed. Beyond that, the Senator from California comes in with a letter from the Inter-Tribal Council of Alaska. That is a group of dissidents in Alaska, as far as I am concerned. The 100,000-member group of Alaskans known as the Alaska Federation of Natives--my colleague Senator Murkowski had printed in the Record last night their Resolution 9505 absolutely supporting opening of this area to oil and gas drilling. The main thing is, in 1985 it was drilled pursuant to a law passed in 1980 to drill a test well to see if the area could produce oil and gas. The exact results have been classified, but we know it does have the largest basin on the North American continent. If it is drilled, we expect it to produce enormous amounts of oil. One estimate I have before me is the total expected reserves for oil and gas in nongas liquids from Alaska, not taking into account the price per barrel, is 32.5 billion to 69.36 billion barrels. When they first told us about the discovery in the Arctic known as Prudhoe Bay, they said the estimate was about a billion barrels. Last year, we produced the 17 billionth barrel, and it is still producing. As a consequence, we face a process of discrimination. We are crying to be treated equally. In California, they have four refuges. Three of them produce oil and gas: Hopper Mountain, Seal Beach, and Sutter. The fourth has a producing well and did not produce until 2000. The Senator from California says, protect the pristine wildlife refuges. This is an enormous area. Her area is less than 100,000 acres, and they are drilling it. It comes down to the question, How much are you influenced by the extreme environmental movement in the United States? This comes down to a question of jobs. It is jobs. There are many Alaska Native people in the gallery now. They need jobs. This is their area. This is a chart showing how many of the wildlife refuges in the United States have oil and gas drilling: California has 4, two northern States have 4 each, Illinois has 4, and there are 17 in Louisiana. Louisiana has proved you can have oil and gas drilling and compatible protection of wildlife at the same time. All we are seeking is to be treated equally. We have a whole series of points that have been made in the last few days. And when I have this debate--there have been a lot of debates here since 1980. The commitment was finally made by two friends of mine who are now deceased, Senator Jackson and Senator Tsongas. After they made their pledge, I helped them to get the whole bill passed, over 100 million acres. There were newspaper ads: Ted Stevens, come home; you made a mistake. If we lose today, I probably did make a mistake because I trusted the Senate. I trusted the Senate to follow the law. I hope the time comes when other people face the same proposition and they can rest assured.

Mr. STEVENS. I yield myself 4 minutes.

Mr. STEVENS. Yes.

Mr. STEVENS. One additional minute.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I yield such time as my colleague from Alaska, Senator Murkowski, desires. Does she need 10 or 12 minutes?

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I believe we have an hour equally divided at this time.

Mr. STEVENS. I do offer that unanimous consent request. I point out, I could speak from now until 3 o'clock, if the Senate would like to do that, but I think it is best we go ahead as the leader requests we do. I renew my request.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, while the Senator from North Dakota is here, I would like to see if there could be an agreement. I understand we are going off this amendment to delete the ANWR provision in this budget resolution for a little while. I wonder if it would be possible if we could ask unanimous consent that we return to this amendment at 2 o'clock--the vote will be at 3--and the time between 2 and 3 o'clock be equally divided between the two sides.

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, will the Senator yield for a moment?

Mr. STEVENS. Madam President, I am delighted to be here when my friend from California mentions my name and someone I should call. I assume that would be President Carter. President Carter told the House of Representatives not to send him the 1980 bill until after the election. And he waited until after the election, but he did sign it. The item I read last night is from Jimmy Carter's own record, his own words at the time he signed that bill. It is true, since that time he has campaigned against a provision of the bill that he signed. We have an amendment introduced now by the Senator from Connecticut to repeal that provision. But that is the first time there has been an amendment to repeal that provision, primarily because the people who were here then who made the commitment to Alaska are all gone. It is sad we have to wait until those people who make commitments to a State that leads to a decision to withdraw over 100 million acres of Alaska land, the one decision we got was we would be able to open up exploration and development on the Arctic coast if we could show there would be no irreparable harm in that area. That was shown with two environmental impact statements. Later I will make comments about the impact of the provision of the Senator from California with regard to the people of California. I spent a good period of time in California. I was raised there and went to school there--UCLA. I tell the people of California when their price of gasoline goes up, call Senator Boxer. Call her and ask her why she opposes oil coming from Alaska as it used to. For over 20 years we sent oil to California from the same area. Now she refuses to allow us to continue to explore in the area that her two colleagues, Senator Jackson and Senator Tsongas, in 1980, said would be open. There are pretty flowers all over Alaska in the summertime. I can show the Senator from California a picture of a million acres of golden rod waving in the breeze. It is beautiful. But I can also show a picture again of the tundra. This is what the area she had a picture of looks like most of the time, the tundra, solid, frozen tundra, and we do this in the wintertime. We do not spoil the flowers. We build ice roads across the tundra and drill for oil and gas. It is completed when it is still frozen land. We did not disturb the caribou. As a matter of fact, here is a good example. I am sorry the Senator from California has not seen fit to come to Alaska and look at the area she talks about. There is the caribou right near Port McIntyre field. That is where they come. They do not look disturbed to me. I have been up there, and there are so many on the runway we had to wait until they decided to leave because they get first call on the runway. It is time we talk facts. And the fact is, Congress pledged this area would be available for oil and gas exploration. The 1002 area was specifically reserved for oil and gas exploration. It is not wilderness. The Senator from California and others insist on coming out here and saying we want to drill in wilderness. That is not true. It never was wilderness from the time it was withdrawn when I was in the Department of Interior in the 1950s. We specifically allowed oil and gas leasing under the Mineral Leasing Act to continue, although the area was withdrawn from all other forms of entry under public land laws. As long as the Senator from California mentions whom I should call, she might want to visit with the Eskimos in the Senate gallery. They are part of 100,000 Alaska Natives in favor of drilling in this area. I intend to spell that out in more detail later. I don't need to call a former President. I know where President Carter stands now, but I knew where he was when I saw him signing the bill. He signed that bill that contained the section 1002, and he gave us the right and approved the offer made by Senator Jackson and Senator Tsongas to me that if we allowed the million acres to be withdrawn, we would continue to have the right to explore in the Arctic. I yield to my friend, and I reserve the remainder of my time. I will talk right up to the vote and urge Members of the Senate to think about one thing, and that is the value of the oil in our area of Alaska as compared to the continued dependence upon foreign oil in increasing amounts in this country.

Mr. STEVENS. You mentioned my name, thank you very much.

Mr. STEVENS. Who should I call?

Mr. STEVENS. I thank the Chair.

Mr. STEVENS. When I left the floor last evening, I yielded to my colleague from Alaska, Senator Murkowski, and it was my understanding the time would be charged against the bill. Instead, I understand it has been charged against the amendment. I ask the manager of our bill to allocate to us an equal amount of time as remains for the Senator from California under the amendment.

Mr. STEVENS. Reserving the right to object.

Mr. STEVENS

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I am perfectly happy. I will seek recognition when the lady has finished.

Mr. STEVENS. Ten minutes.

Mr. STEVENS. I don't think I am limited in time. I will yield myself time off the bill, by authority of the manager on our side. I don't know how much time. I will not agree to a time limit.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, it is my intention to use such time as may be available to me in making statements to answer comments made by the Senator from California and the Senator from Massachusetts. I have no estimate of how long I am going to take.

Mr. STEVENS. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that I be able to yield 10 minutes to the Senator from Wyoming and that I be recognized after that time.

Mr. STEVENS. I have no objection.

Mr. STEVENS. I thank the Chair.

Mr. STEVENS. Was a request made?