What Could One Possibly Do to Help Rid Ourselves of Unjustified Moratoria?  

One Could Start by Joining Consumer Energy Alliance’s Call to Action To Comment Before the September 17 Deadline!

Trouble in the Colony

by 

Dave Harbour 

 

Dan SullivanThursday, Governor Sean Parnell (NGP Photo-r) and Alaska’s Attorney General, Sean ParnellDan Sullivan (NGP Photo-l, with Parnell), announced that the State would resist being treated like a ‘second class citizen’ by the Federal government–and filed a lawsuit to overturn the ‘arbitrary and capricious’  actions of Secretary Ken Salazar to illegally establish oil and gas moratoria off-shore Alaska.  (Our View Here.)

As I sat through the conference, for a brief moment I imagined myself in some pre-1776 meeting of fellow colonists discussing how to approach the various burdens being placed on us by a far away landlord.  A few days ago, Alaska Standard columnist Victor John Yannacone Jr., characterized Alaska’s relationship with the federal government similarly, invoking a "…famous scene from Oliver Twist when a starving Oliver asks the manager of the work house, ‘Please sir, May I have some more?’  Oliver received a caning for his impudence; I wonder what the DC bureaucrats will do to the sovereign people of Alaska," Yannacone asked.

Parnel opened the meeting with a brief statement regarding the  

 

(Under construction, more coming later today….; meanwhile, here is the AP story by Dan Joling (NGP Photo-l); KTUU by Todd Walker (NGP Photo); KTVA by Matt Felling (NGP Photo).

 

Wednesday, In our lead testimony, we said, "Secretary Salazar has created an imperial throne of his administrative position. He has not acted in response to the law but – in Plato’s words – has attempted to make the law subject to his own authority.  Your clear-headed recommendation could help set the Interior Department back on a steady course consistent with the rule of law, respectful of due process and serving the interest of the American public.

 
I am advising you tonight –via several bullet comments—under your second mission of considering ‘economic consequences’ of the Department’s decisions.
  • The Secretary’s moratorium applied to deepwater development. Yet, without public notice or notice to affected parties he told the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 23 that the Moratorium did apply to Alaska. Just like that. No due process. Done on his own authority. He contradicted his BOEM director and repeated his verbal extension of the moratoria last week while he was in Anchorage. He said he had other reasons than ‘deepwater concerns’ for applying the moratorium on his own authority to Alaska. He said he had applied this moratorium to Alaska on his own authority by causing various approvals to be withheld.
  • The Secretary’s blunt use of power under the authority of his own word without notice or due process has significantly harmed Lessees, the State of Alaska and the people of the state. Chukchi and Beaufort Sea exploration was on course for his approval early in the year, following several years of preparation by exploration companies and the expenditure of billions of dollars. The Secretary’s actions have cost companies hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in delays and lost opportunities. His actions have endangered the economic survival of the State, dependent as it is on declining throughput of the Trans Alaska Pipeline–waiting for new volumes of OCS or ANWR or National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska throughput. His actions have erased job opportunities this very summer for hundreds of Alaskan citizens."

(Required reading for colonists above age 6.)