Alaska's Right to Produce Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mrs. PELTOLA. Mr. Speaker, I thank my colleague, the honorable Mr. Stauber, for his work on this measure.

I rise today to speak about Alaska's Right to Produce Act and how I will be voting.

This bill unintentionally pits two of Alaska's most important industries, energy and fisheries, against one another. Alaska faces an energy crisis, which is more than slightly ironic since our State has vast energy resources. Alaska pays some of the highest prices in the country for the petroleum we need to heat our homes through winter and the fuel that we need to transport ourselves and our goods.

Everyone knows Alaska is rich in oil and gas, but we also have great wind energy potential in the Cook Inlet, geothermal exploration in the Aleutians, and expanding hydropower in the southeast.

However, many Alaskans live in extremely rural areas that rely on diesel and biomass to heat our homes through harsh winters. Those fuels are more expensive and contribute to air pollution in regions like Fairbanks, which has some of the worst air quality in the Nation.

While some would love to jump straight from diesel to wind, that is unrealistic in Alaska. What we can do is use natural gas as a bridge fuel to move more people to cleaner-burning energy and reduced air pollution.

That is why I believe Alaskans should be able to develop and transport the natural gas we have available on our North Slope for our use throughout the State. I genuinely support an all-of-the-above approach on energy.

Alaskans can't afford to be picky about where energy comes from. My personal energy bills are over $1,000 a month, a reality that many of my lower 48 colleagues do not fully understand.

I was the only Democrat to support this legislation at markup, and I still support the bill's intent. Alaska needs to develop energy for our use and economic well-being.

However, this bill would nullify the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. This resilience area was created at the request of Alaska Native Tribes in the region. It empowers the people who have lived there for thousands of years to exercise their self-determination and be equal voices on policy decisions facing the Northern Bering Sea.

Let me be clear: This bill never intended to target the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. That is why I proposed an amendment that would have removed this resilience area from the final bill text. That is also why today I introduced a clean version of the Alaska's Right to Produce Act that doesn't impact the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area.

Alaska's Right to Produce aims to ensure my State can continue to develop its onshore oil and gas resources in areas like the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

It is a reserve, not a refuge. It was set aside for oil and gas development, not permanent preservation. Even as recently as the Obama administration, companies were encouraged to develop in the National Petroleum Reserve as opposed to other parts of Alaska.

On the other hand, the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area is necessary to help manage the impacts of climate change on our Arctic environments, including increased vessel traffic, moving fish stocks, marine debris, and increased military activity.

We saw recently why the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area needs to remain in place. NOAA developed the Northern Bering Sea Effects of Trawling Survey, an experiment to see the impacts of commercial bottom trawling in an area of the Bering Sea where it is currently banned.

In their opposition to this project, the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience intertribal advisory council said that NOAA's plan perfectly illustrated the two reasons why the area was established in the first place: the history of the Bering Sea Tribes not being involved in policy discussions and decisions, and the threat of bottom trawling moving into the Northern Bering Sea ecosystem.

By nullifying this area, we are breaking our promise to the Tribes and directly harming fishing communities. Alaskans face many challenges and threats to our unique ways of life. We are on the brink of being forced to import natural gas from a foreign country, and our fishermen are in the midst of an economic free fall, coupled with depleted fish stocks.

Unfortunately, the way this bill was written puts energy development against fisheries, and for that reason I will be voting ``present'' today.

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