Murkowski Questions Key DOI and DOE Nominees
Washington, DC – U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), former Chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee (ENR), today participated in a full committee hearing to consider four nominations that will have a significant impact on the nation’s policies during the Trump administration.
Murkowski received important commitments from Leslie Beyer, the President’s nominee to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Land and Minerals Management. Ms. Beyer, who is nominated for the position last held (on a Senate-confirmed basis) by an Alaskan, Joe Balash, pledged to adhere to Alaska’s “No More Wilderness” clause, work with the Senator to lift outdated Public Land Orders, and complete long-stalled land conveyances in Alaska. Ms. Beyer further committed to work with the Senator to determine appropriate leasing on Alaska’s Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).
Murkowski also welcomed Tristan Abbey, a former member of her ENR staff and now the President’s nominee to be Administrator of the Energy Information Administration (EIA), back to the committee. Mr. Abbey, whose nomination has been endorsed by four former EIA Administrators, pledged objective analysis from the agency to support good policymaking.
Click here to watch the Senator’s full line of questioning.
The full transcript of Murkowski’s comments is below.
TRANSCRIPT
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'm just smiling because I was given a statement from Senator [Frank] Murkowski, who was on this committee, on July 15, 1986. Apparently at that time, my father introduced you, Mr. Garrish, to the committee as you were being nominated to become the federal inspector for the Alaska Natural Gas Transportation System. So as my colleague has said, there’s a few from the Reagan days that not only understand things, but understand things so well that they are back yet again. So, a little bit of committee history here, so just want to acknowledge that.
Ms. Beyer, I want to speak to a couple questions here, and I love your connections to Alaska. It takes tough individuals to run the (Anchorage) Mayor’s Marathon and just love the fact that you like to spend family time up there. So, you’re familiar with Alaska. The last time we had a Senate-confirmed ASLM position was an Alaskan, Joe Balash, he obviously got a lot of these issues that are before Interior, before BLM, and you’re going to be asked to pick up a lot in his space, as you well know. I know that you are familiar with the “No More Wilderness” clause that is contained in ANILCA. I just need your commitment to me and to the committee that you will ensure that BLM and other agencies under your purview abide by this “No More Wilderness” clause and even going a little bit beyond that, whether or not you'd be willing to work with the delegation to evaluate what has happened in Alaska since passage of ANILCA as a result of BLM’s oftentimes unilateral decisions to withdraw more and more land from public access. So just a willingness to work with the delegation on this.
Beyer: Absolutely, ma’am, given my personal affinity for the state, it’s one of the things that I am most looking forward to working on. If I am confirmed, I look forward to spending time there and working with you on all those issues.
Murkowski: We will invite you back often. And speaking of Alaska land conveyances, as you know, we’re dealing with the lifting of outdated Public Land Orders, long, long overdue land conveyances that are owed under our Alaska Statehood Act, as well as Native Claims Settlement Act, and we have to resolve submerged lands issues. These are matters that require a great deal of detail, time, and resources. But we’ve been a state now for long enough, and I think some of these promises that were made at statehood need to be completed. We need your help to that. We just like your commitment to that.
Beyer: Absolutely, ma’am, if I'm lucky enough to be confirmed, I look forward to working on that.
Murkowski: Good, good, good. And last question to you, I know you’re not in the building yet, but the Department has just recently announced a new Five-Year Program for offshore development as well as what they’re calling a new “High Arctic” planning area. And I get where the administration is coming from, it’s basically put everything on the table and then figure out how we might want to winnow some of this back, actually where we want leasing to occur. As you well know, in Alaska, there are places that we seek to develop aggressively, responsibly, and then there are areas that we don’t. So, I would just ask your commitment, again, that you would work with the Alaska delegation. We’ve got Alaskans that are here in the room as part of Alaska Day today, but especially our North Slope leaders, who can help determine where leasing is appropriate and perhaps not appropriate within the Alaska OCS.
Beyer: Absolutely. I look forward to being briefed on the details of that, and I will take a very close look at it.
Murkowski: Very good. Appreciate that. Mr. Abbey, I am going to give you an opportunity to share a little bit of your vision here. You don’t have much time, but you have spent a lot of time thinking about many of these things. You mentioned the vision that you have for critical minerals and the specific outlook, but is what we were able to accomplish when it came to lifting the oil export ban, and again, the strategy, the implementation, can we do this with critical minerals? Can we do this with LNG exports? Is this something that in your new role, you think you can bring to the table, looking at the objective, analytical data, that EIA brings to bear? Can we develop, can we work towards developing better, strategic approaches to these very important issues?
Abbey: Thank you, Senator, for the question. In my view, objectivity is a discipline, is something that you can practice. And in various capacities, I have been an objective steward of data. In other capacities, I’ve had more of a policy role. If confirmed as Administrator, I would no longer be in a policymaking role. But I do believe that the crude oil export debate illustrates the importance of EIA. There were a lot of think tanks and consulting firms that were writing reports about crude oil exports, but all of them were using EIA data. “EIA data,” to borrow Ranking Member Heinrich’s term, is a common set of facts, and I think the EIA can absolutely play a critical role in helping anybody who is trying to develop any kind of energy policy, to equip them with the information that they need.
Murkowski: It’s a good answer. Thank you, I appreciate it.
Abbey: I learned from the best.
Murkowski: (Laughs) Thank you!
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