with senator lisa murkowski. she talks about her home state, her role as chair of the natural resources committee and her thoughts on supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. this is just under 30 minutes. lisa murkowski of alaska, there are not too many third-generation alaskans around, is there? sen. murkowski: it's getting to the more and more. we are contributing with a fourth-generation. we have boys who are staying in the state. it is something i am proud of. i love my state, and i love my family's history there appeared >> what brought -- there. >> what brought your grandparents there? the story from

my dad's side is that everybody wanted to come up for the gold. most southernthe community, and realized he did not have enough money to get to the goldfield so he stayed there and went to work in a bank where he cashed out the minors when when theye miners came in with gold. brand-newr dad was a attorney and he got a message from one of his buddies saying come to alaska, come to this town. there is only one lawyer, and there is not much work. i need somebody. he came up as a very young man and the rest is history. in the parents grew up town, where i was born. as a kid alaska

growing up, and i lived in anchorage and fairbanks. >> what is the difference between nome and where you were born? sen. murkowski: to begin with, a couple thousand miles. , yourms of similarities are both off the grid, so to speak. island, and an gnome -- nome might as well be an island in terms of isolation. they are both communities that i think the pioneers looked to as a place of opportunity. nome for the gold rush. ketchikan was about the strength of the fisheries, which drew people not only from the lower 48 but a strong filipino contingency. both pioneering towns in their own right that way.

both beautiful communities to this day, i love them. what does your chairmanship of the energy and natural resources committee bring to alaska? sen. murkowski: i think it allows alaska to be in that national spotlight when it comes to our energy resources. state.a resource rich have that many people, but we have more natural resources, whether it be trees, fish, oil, minerals, natural gas, coal. an extraordinary mineral days. -- mineral base. contribute to to the national conversation on energy is extraordinarily important, and coming from an energy producing state like

alaska, it becomes all the more important. >> natural gas is growing in alaska? sen. murkowski: it is growing. we have been producing natural gas for decades. years, we shipped areaut of the cook inlet to japan. it was the longest running out of ther export united states for natural gas. and it was coming right out of cook inlet. reservese got good gas down in the south central area, but we also have extraordinary untapped reserves up in our north slope. we have the potential for methane hydrate, unconventional gas. it is extraordinary. our challenge has never been, do we have the resource?

our challenge is how do you move the resource to market. -- the market? back to your question about the role of my chairmanship on the natural resources committee, that has been an important part work out access to alaska's resources. the resources are there, how do you move them? >> senator, in your view, has climate change affected alaska? sen. murkowski: absolutely. as one who was born and raised there, and who travels widely around the state, particularly some of our very remote areas, predominantly on the coast, but into some arctic areas where quite honestly, there has not been a lot of

focus from folks on the outside, unelected leaders or otherwise. i have an opportunity to come in and see for myself, to sit down, to hear from elders about what they have observed. these are folks, they might not have a phd, but they have a phd in living and they can tell you what they are seeing, with the sea ice and the consequence of erosion that is coming about because the sea ice is receding, allowing waves to build up. it's not just coastal erosion, it is in so many other areas. it is what you're seeing in habitats, things growing in places they had not been before. paths, where the caribou are, the fisheries. i look honestly at the reality i

believey state and i that our climate is changing and we are seeing the impacts, and how we are able to adapt and mitigate is something that as a lawmaker i try to help our state with on a daily basis. >> you have also recently passed legislation to help with some of the indigenous populations in alaska, didn't you? loan guarantees? sen. murkowski: loan guarantees. when i think about the many ways we can help, that we here in congress can help those in our native communities deal with, whether it is the impact of through helping them develop infrastructure that will push back against the tide.

that is tough and expensive. assistance, technical assistance, loan guarantees, grant programs, scientific assistance, research data. there is a host of different ways we can help. but i think it is also important for -- important to recognize these are not just initiatives that would focus on moving a village, for instance, a community threatened by erosion and they will lose their school, their air strip. seee are other impacts we with climate change. particularly health-related impacts. if you have an area that is now drier than it was before, you have levels of dust because you don't have paved roads.

you have respiratory issues children may be dealing with. there are a host of different ways we have to look at this as an issue, and the threats to the people are i believe a parent. -- apparent. >> there are three of you in congress representing alaska. you ever feel like you are fighting against the tide to get people down here to understand? sen. murkowski: it is always an education. i can talk about alaska to my colleagues and to members of the administration, but even they will admit they really did not get it until they flew to alaska , until they were in that situation where they realized, weight, she was right -- right,d, wait, she was

there are really no roads down here. over 80% of communities in alaska are not connected by road. the bus you want to get around alaska, good luck with that. we have a marine highway system, you can get on a fairy -- ferry that goes up. and oneone that goes up that goes down, and that is our road system. ,hen you think about rural everybody has rural in the state. they think they understand. to them, rural is you drive along way, you finally get to a rough and bumpy road, a little town after that, and another rough and bumpy road. rural,ska, it is beyond it is frontier. it is beyond what most people can relate to.

, until you are there, to be able to take the secretary of energy out to a little community outside of bethel, alaska, which is not connected by road. in the wintertime, the rivers freeze over, and the way we access it is to drive down the river on the ice. the secretary said it was the first time he'd been in a motorcade on a frozen river. you have to experience it. relate,you can try to but you have to experience it. congress toers of --up to fit is important to congress up to see it is important. people tryingof

to come up and see it. youru bring some of colleagues up to the natural wildlife refuge, did they see what the pipeline looks like, the areas you want to open for more drilling? intomurkowski: when you go area, that piece at the top of alaska in the north slope that has been set aside, you will not see pipeline. there is no pipeline. 1002 is nothing in that area. community, and that community has its own airstrip and a school and a community they have a little

restaurant, not really restaurant, a little lodging. that is what is in the area existing. one exploration well made back in the early 1980's, and that is it. skinny boxke a sitting there. otherwise, nothing but flat tundra. green and marshy in the summer flat ine and perfectly the wintertime. that is the 1002 area. outside of those boundaries, on where yous, that is will see the development that has come about through exploration and the ongoing discovery. bay is about 80 mise -- 80

miles to the west of where you would be in the 1002 area. when i take members up that want to see the area, we will fly up to dead horse, and the bay, which is the original field built 40-plus years ago. baytually worked in the when i was just out of high , yes, it wasuse me just out of high school, i was in college. i worked constructing the pipeline, i spent a full summer, it was extraordinary. you see, that development, that is what people would call the elephant, that is what changed revenues to the state.

you have what would be described as more satellite irma --n state areas areas, further to the west. with there seeing now level of exploration and the signs they are seeing between areas and the national petroleum reserve to , that's of the 1002 where you seeing our strong development right now -- seeing strong development right now. >> what would you say to people who are concerned about the environment and think oil or gas trilling would be the wrong thing to do? sen. murkowski: i would invite them to come up, i think it is important for them to see. it takes me back to my earlier comments that you have to see alaska to believe and understand

it. what you see when you come into the dead horse area and the bay is a mature, developed oilfield that was developed using the technologies from 45 years ago. it is a much bigger footprint. you then go out to, for instance, the alpine field, or ist konica -- what conoco doing. you look at the footprint and how we have reduced the footprint so many times over. people cannot believe, is this all you are talking about, all you are working off of? is hostinggravel pad this level of expiration activity? the reason they are able to do it is because of changes in the technology that have come about in the past four decades-plus.

down andthat can dive spoke out in an area up to eight miles in radius. that's what our technology is delivering to us. you don't see it on the surface, the caribou don't see it on the surface, the people who may live in the region can't see it on the surface. this is what we are trying to do. we don't want to come in and take the land just to take the land. that is not part of anybody's plan. we want to be able to access a in a way thato so is efficient, clean, environmentally sound, allows for the continued subsistence activity of the native people who live in the region. there are not a lot of communities or people, but we want to make sure the native people who have lived there

thousands of years are able to continue harvesting their caribou, are able to continue that comesthe whale through on an annual basis and sustain them through the winter. there is a balance that goes on in alaska that i am proud to talk about. that theade sure balance is there for the people first who live there, who need not only the jobs, the resources, that the economy that comes with it. the reality we have is that in the north slope borough, you have a school system that is able to higher pretty good teachers -- able to hire pretty good teachers, you have health

care available for the people in the region that is to be admired, you can afford utility barrow. it is powered by natural gas. it comes from the oilfield. you compare that to some of the communities that are still 100% reliant on diesel fuel to stay warm. what development has brought to the people in the region, it has brought about change, and i know there is resistance, there is always some resistance to change , but when it also brings the benefit of jobs and resources and the ability to live in a cold, dark place, to be able to be warm and make sure your kids are educated, to make sure you

have the opportunity for health care, these are some of the benefits and advantages to having development in the region. but the people still demand, and i demand as their representative, that their ability to access the resources on the land for their subsistence, food nutrition, and also because it is part of their identity. whalere the people of the , the people of the caribou, they identify with their food source by name. we cannot take that away from them. we are no longer doing active exploration in the offshore as shell was doing some years ago. there, theyas out had stipulations and agreements and memorandums of understanding that required when the bowhead

whale were migrating through, you're out of the water. the engines are not running, you cannot be out there. when i tell that to people in the lower 48 who come from producing places, north dakota or california, tell them that when the whale come through, there is nothing going on, they say what? you can't possibly do that. i say no, that is a condition. you have a social license to operate. you have to work with the people who work there, the indigenous peoples who have been there 1000 years. , it is aboutalance balance and it is not easy, that it is very important. lisa murkowski is chair of the energy and natural resources committee in the senate and the senior senator from alaska. final question.

in the next couple of weeks, a lot of attention will be paid to you when it comes to the brett kavanaugh nomination. you have had this before, but what that is like, to have that attention? sen. murkowski: i like to say that look, all of us in the senate have exactly the same boat. -- same vote. i have one vote, as does the senior members of the senate and the junior member from alaska. a great deal of attention has been trained on me because, primarily the issue of roe v. wade and what will happen when kennedy, who was viewed as a swing member on the supreme court, when he leaves and judge kavanagh replacing him, what will happen to the balance?

it's not just the balance on soen's reproductive issues, many other issues are a concern for alaskan constituents. we as a state believe very strongly in ensuring we are respecting second amendment rights, for instance. but trying to identify or distill out and say there is one issue for me that will guide my determination on this nomination or any future nomination for the u.s. supreme court, that is not how i operate. i have been looking at judge kavanagh and his record holistically just as i did with every other justice i have had an opportunity to weigh in on, whether it was justice kagan, justice sotomayor or judge gorsuch. i am perhaps taking more time than some would like me to be some on the right -- some would like me to.

some on the right would like me to decide right now to support him and some on the left think i should decide right now he is unacceptable. i don't operate that way. i will take my time and be thoughtful. i have joked with my son, who is finishing up law school, that i feel like i am back and law school because i am reading the opinions. i want to gauge for myself. i know am not going to be able to ask him a question on what will you do on x case? i would not ask that question and he would not answer that question. so what i am trying to do is discern is judge kavanagh has the qualities i think we are all looking for in a judge. the judicial temperament, the character, the intelligence, the balance, the desire to truly follow the law rather than to

try to move things in a predetermined or perhaps political outcome. so i want to know, how does he view precedent? how does he consider law to be settled? i am looking forward to the conversations. i think it will be more than several weeks. the judiciary committee has to go through a pretty voluminous records request. you have a judge who has been on the bench now in the d.c. circuit for 12 years, there are a lot of opinions out there. you have his sister in the bush administration, so you have further records out there. , and i amfollowing it ok being in that space of people accusing me of being too thoughtful on this. i want to be too thoughtful and i think alaskans expect me to be

thoughtful. and i am welcoming their opinions, their views, everybody comes out it with something they care about. ,here is a process ahead of me and as you have noted, i am in the swirl because i haven't been pegged into either box. into aon't be pegged box, i'm going to do my own work on this and do what alaskans expect me to do, which is be thorough and thoughtful. >> as part of c-span's alaska we can, here is an interview with senator dan sullivan. he talks about the top issues in his state and his support for supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh. this is just over 20 minutes. sullivan ofan alaska. it is july, what is going on in alaska?