Me oukou, welina me aloha pumehana.Thank you, Mel [Mel Kahele] for your kind words.
President Hoffa, Secretary Treasurer Keegel, brothers and sisters of the Teamsters Union, mahalo nui loa for your warm greeting. It is a pleasure to join you this morning for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters Western Region seminar. It is wonderful to be here among so many friends from across the great American West. It is especially nice to see Hawaii so well-represented by the hosts of this business meeting and seminar, the Hawaii Teamsters and Allied Workers, Local 996.
I am certain that your seminar and meetings this week will help strengthen your international and local unions, energize your organizing efforts, and ensure that the Teamsters, as a leader of the American labor movement, continues to protect the job security, health security, and retirement security of your membership.
All workers have a right to choose or form a union, strike without fear of replacement, and work in a safe and secure environment. These principles are powerful, simple and true. By championing these principles you serve not only over 1.4 million Teamsters across America and Canada, but help to strengthen and benefit our great country. Your efforts and energy help us in the Senate and Congress as we work to protect the rights of workers, make quality health care available and affordable, raise the minimum wage, treat legal immigrants fairly, protect Social Security and Medicare, and defend the civil rights of all Americans.
I am proud to stand with you and fight to ensure that America's working men and women have the opportunity to compete fairly in the global economy, and that Congress acts to protect the health and safety of the workforce and the public, whether it be on an assembly line or behind the wheel of a commercial truck on our nation's highways.
Much work remains for the Congress this session before the mid-term elections, and there are only 121 days remaining on the Senate schedule. One of the most important issues pending before the Senate is the enactment of a comprehensive, diversified and sound national energy policy.
When we convene after this recess, we will begin consideration of the Energy Policy Act of 2002 to provide for our Nation's long-term energy security. I believe that we must adopt a long-term plan that ensures the reliable domestic supply of energy our country needs, invests in research and development to ensure that a full range of fuels and technologies are available in the future, diversifies our energy supplies, enhances conservation, and improves efficiency.
As we work to develop and promote fuels for the future, we must also ensure reliable domestic supplies of energy and strong environmental safeguards. During my tenure in the Senate as a member of the Energy Committee I have worked to further these goals. That is why I support responsible oil and gas exploration and drilling on federal lands such as the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) and will support an ANWR amendment to the Senate energy bill.
No energy issue has received greater attention than oil and gas exploration on a small portion of Alaska's Coastal Plain, within ANWR. Regrettably, ANWR has come to symbolize the supposed conflict between conservation and development, and the debate has become so impassioned that not enough attention has been paid to the facts. This situation has created a false dichotomy.
Twenty-one years ago, Congress enacted the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act establishing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which encompasses 19 million acres of land in northeast Alaska. The refuge is the largest in the world. Eight million acres were designated wilderness lands and 11 million acres were designated nonwilderness lands. Among the nonwilderness lands, 1.5 million acres, located along the Arctic Coastal Plain, were set aside by Congress to be studied for their oil potential. Numerous federal studies have concluded that the Coastal Plain holds vast potential oil reserves. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Coastal Plain could have between 5 to 16 billion barrels of recoverable crude oil. Ten billion barrels is the equivalent of 30 years worth of imports from Saudi Arabia.
Energy development on the Coastal Plain could also create thousands of new jobs and pump billions of dollars into the national economy. A recent economic analysis forecast the potential for 736,000 new domestic jobs in manufacturing, mining, construction, and trade and services. I know that this is of great interest to your membership and others in the labor movement.
Unfortunately, most of my colleagues will vote on this issue without ever visiting the Coastal Plain or talking to the Inupiat Eskimo who call the Coastal Plain home.
In 1995, I toured Alaska's North Slope as part of an Energy Committee field visit. We toured the Prudhoe Bay oil facilities and the Trans-Alaska pipeline. We met with Barrow, Alaska, and North Slope Borough government officials and community leaders. We also flew over ANWR and visited the Inupiat Eskimo who live in Kaktovik, the only community in ANWR's Coastal Plain
The firsthand information garnered during this visit confirmed three important points for me:
1) for generations the Inupiat Eskimo people have been responsible stewards of their lands and wildlife;
2) the Inupiat, and the Alaska Federation of Natives, the statewide Native organization, support opening the Coastal Plain to a carefully regulated plan of oil and gas leasing to provide jobs and economic development opportunities; and
3) the acreage needed to search for and produce oil has decreased and the technology used to produce energy has improved significantly over the past three decades. Horizontal drilling and directional wells have substantially reduced the footprint necessary for production.
The strong support expressed for energy and economic development on the Coastal Plain by the Inupiat who live on the North Slope convinced me that a balance between economic development, traditional cultural and economic practices, and environmental preservation is achievable in ANWR. That is why I support environmentally responsible oil development on the Coastal Plain as part of a balanced national energy policy.
The issue is not one of development or preservation. Thirty years of experience at the oil fields at Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk, Endicott, Lisburne, and Milne Point underscore that development and environmental protection can and do co-exist.
The development proposed on the Coastal Plain would involve only 2,000 of ANWR's 1.5 million acres. The use of state-of-art technology and strict regulatory oversight, both of which would be required by law, will safeguard the porcupine caribou herd and ensure the subsistence needs of all Alaska Natives. The Inupiat's local government already uses its permitting and zoning powers to mandate responsible behavior by any visitor–whether tourist or oil company. They are committed to ensuring that energy development is done in ways that protect resources for future generations. The leasing program under consideration by the Senate includes strict environmental protection safeguards for the Coastal Plain, including regulations requiring seasonal closures to protect caribou calving areas, the habitat of other species of fish and wildlife, and the rights of subsistence hunters.
The Eskimo I met in Barrow and Kaktovik are subsistence hunters who depend on the land. Sixty percent of their diet comes from caribou, marine mammals, fish, and waterfowl. As the inhabitants and stewards of the Coastal Plain for countless generations, these Native peoples believe that properly regulated energy development is compatible with the environment, wildlife, and their traditional practices and culture. I respect and trust their judgment. I support their right to self-determination and their desire to explore economic development opportunities on their ancestral lands.
The Inupiat people, indeed all Alaska Natives, are kindred spirits with the Native Hawaiian people. Alaska Natives and Hawaiians each share a strong and sacred bond to their ancestral lands and waters. The values of malama aina and malama kai characterize our peoples' relationship with our natural environment which has shaped the development of both our cultures. This harmony with nature has nourished our native cultures. It shapes who we are as indigenous, native peoples.
No government, group, or individual knows the North Slope, including the Coastal Plain, better than the Inupiat. They know the land and the sea, the caribou, Bowhead whales, and other animals that live on the North Slope and Beaufort Sea. They depend on these animals for their survival. Experience has convinced them that energy development can occur in a responsible and carefully regulated manner that protects the land and wildlife.
The Inupiat people seek to benefit from the economic development of their land in the middle of the Coastal Plain and the revenues energy development will bring to their local governments. The jobs and tax revenues from oil development have empowered the Inupiat to preserve their language, culture, and traditions. The economic development of the 92,000 acres owned by the Inupiat in the Coastal Plain will permit them to build and maintain a better life for themselves and their children.
In my opinion, the right of the Inupiat Eskimo to self-determination, to decide what is pono, what is proper, for themselves, their people, and their children has been disregarded in the debate over oil development on the Coastal Plain.
I understand the concerns raised by other native peoples who rely on the caribou that live on the North Slope. I have met with supporters and opponents of energy development in ANWR on numerous occasions in recent years. Other Alaska Natives and Indians, indeed all Alaskans, share the Inupiat's vested interests in ensuring strict environmental protection standards. I trust them to act responsibly and protect their cherished legacy. In Alaska this is not a partisan issue, and I regret that the national debate is frequently framed as a partisan fight.
It is essential that our nation adopt a comprehensive, long-term plan to diversify our energy supplies and enhance energy conservation, while ensuring reliable domestic supplies of energy and environmental protection safeguards. America imports almost 60 percent of our energy needs. The State of Hawaii depends on imported oil for over 90 percent of our energy production. America needs an energy policy that commits greater attention to developing domestic energy sources. The responsible development of an extremely small portion of the Coastal Plain of ANWR can and should be part of that national energy policy.
I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on energy security and development with you this morning. Mahalo nui loa, thank you very much, for your hospitality and warm reception. I wish you much success with your seminar this week. I am certain that you will leave here with the resources and tools to strengthen your locals and your national union, as well as the American labor movement and working men and women in our country. The voice of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters resonates across the American political landscape. Your commitment to make life better for your members and for all working families, your dedication to justice and opportunity for all Americans, represent the true promise of America and the source of our nation's greatness and unique place in history. Keep your voice strong and your purpose clear.
Thank you.
God bless you.
