Feds Respond To Democrats’ Concerns: Working To Move NPR-A Oil Development Forward
(JUNEAU) – On February 28, fourteen Democrats wrote the Secretary of the Interior expressing concerns about the rejection of ConocoPhillips’s oil development plan in NPR-A. “Development in NPR-A is crucial to our attempts to stem the decline of North Slope oil production, and the Army Corps decision denying the bridge permit was wrong,” said Rep. Les Gara (D-Anch).
According to a response the legislators recently received, from the Secretary of the Interior’s Alaska Representative, former State Senator Kim Elton, the Secretary is working to “resolve the impasse in a way that allows the stalled project to proceed rationally.”
http://www.akhouse.org/gara/042511_CD-5_Elton_response.pdf
“We are hopeful for a quick resolution. This area was designated for oil development, and work in that area will mean needed Alaska jobs and oil production,” said Rep. Bob Miller (D-Fairbanks).
ConocoPhillips has planned this development since at least 2010, and, notably, before the recent effort to roll back Alaska’s current taxation system. See February 17, 2011 Juneau Empire article: http://juneauempire.com/stories/021710/sta_564132211.shtml
By moving forward with this project, which they projected would be on line by 2012 without the Army Corps delay, they concede that the project is economic without the Governor’s proposed $8 billion reduction in the state’s share of oil revenue he proposes over the next five years.
For more information, contact Rep. Gara or aide Rose Foley at (907) 465-2647 or at representative_les_gara@legis.state.ak.us
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