>> thank you, senator murkowski. first of all with respect to the o.c.s., we already have those authorities and have been implementing those authorities in terms of shorter lease terms as well as graduated royalty rates within the o.c.s. . >> we have 41 million acres of your land, america's land that only 12 million of those acres are currently producing. and we have more planned for 2012. if we are able to shorten this from 10 years to a lesser amount of time, some of this area that is just being held out there is leased. there would be a greater incentive from the companies and they would only have to move forward and exploration and development. >> but would you agree that the facts on the ground in alaska are somewhat different than we have for the 48? >> i think alaska, as you and i have often spoken is a world unto itself and we need to recognize its realities, whether it is in the arctic or elsewhere. >> very briefly, there has been discussion about the length of time and why it takes as long as it does for th

senator murkowski and i said considerable time working together to do that. our work will continue and i hope to be able to consider both bills in the committee before memorial day recess. i would note that i've introduced these bills as separate bills for a reason. i want to give our work the best chance being enacted into law. i believe we do that by dealing with these issues in parallel. there is not much disagreement in the senate about the need for responsible domestic production but there is considerable disagreement about how best to address that issue, and we will work hard to find productive areas in the census. however, ensuring the safety and viability of our operations on the outer continental shelf is a separate matter that deserves attention on its own. the question of how we undertake will and gas development appropriately stands apart from questions of where we undertake those activities. congress should set inappropriate loveless if the environmental compliance regardless of where the oil and gas exploration is occurring in the commitment to

senator murkowski, the reality is 30 days is simply not enough. right now under the statue, you up it or down it in terms of an exploration plan within the 30 day time period. part of the reality that should be wasn't lessoned learned from deep water horizon and national crisis would be the agency didn't have the capacity, the resources, or really the time to do the effective job that it should be doing. so when we're talking about having a 90 day time frame, it seems to me that's the kind of time that is required to be able to make that the best of the science and safety measures are being brought into play to review the exploration plan. i don't think it will have an impact in terms of having delays ultimately to oil and gas production in the nation's oceans. >> senator wyden. >> thank you, mr. chairman. it's good to have my old seat mates in the committee here. and i'm going to ask you a couple of questions about offshore practices. but i want to start with a matter that involves energy production onshore because as you know, mr. secretary, the

senate -- senator rakowski and and i senator murkowski have put together a paper and how you could construct a so- called clean energy standard which would be along the lines of what the president talked about in his state of the union speech. it would basically say that we want 80% of the electricity that is produced in the country produced from so-called clean energy sources by 2035. we are now seeing -- we have gotten nearly 300 responses back. we asked people for comments on it. we're now trying to figure out if we can put together a draft peace of legislation that could get enough votes to be seriously considered in our committee. we do not have the enter to that yet, but we're trying in a conscientious way to get to something that would achieve the kind of objective the president laid out. >> to you think the administration is getting aggressive on that or is working with congress now on its? the last time, that -- the last time there was a sweeping energy climate bill, the administration pulled back and did not work with congress as much as it would have. >> in trying to come up with

senator murkowski? >> thank you. it is good to see you. a couple of questions for you this morning. first of all i would like to focus on the issue of disperseants. do you recall about this time last year, there was a great deal of back and forth about the use of disperse --ants of what was a safe level, we know how it works. better understanding at the surface but when we are making application subsurface, it is different. it seemed like there was a lot of just back and forth and just some internal issues with regard to the decisions that were being made with the use of disperseants coming from the e.p.a. working with coast guard. the question to you today is does legislation before us raise some of the concerns in interprets of when we are -- how to apply dispersants and is it really good to require them to prove access to dispersants? just raising questions about dispersants. >> certainly. it relates to senator shaheen's question. we have not done any further r & d, disperseant use, the impacts, what their impact is, putting them on a national schedule which oil spill response ca

thank you, madam chairman. >> thank you, senator murkowski. senator murray. >> thank you pretty much, madam chairman, secretary chu, welcome to the committee and ensure you whenever an officer know that i'm going to ask you about. obvious late nuclear preservation method of washington. as you well know, hanford is the largest federal nuclear cleanup site in the country and is part of the larger contract won by the department of environmental management program. when you go back through d.o.e.'s limits, the department was created to manage nuclear activities and the federal government has a fundamental analytical response ability to clean up the contamination that's been left behind by our nations nuclear weapons production activity. so i had her in this administration doesn't seem to take the legal obligations seriously because i look at the budget and see you continue to increase programs that don't have any legal obligations associated with them, but yet remains largely flat. i don't think i'm the only one of my colleagues on the senate comm

. >> murkowski says mayor stephanie rawlings-blake understands the need for good schools and communities. congressman in logic cummings also announced his support for the mayor's bid for reelection. -- congressman in elijah cummings. >> did you know it is melanoma monday? skin cancer is the most common cancer in this country and also the most preventable. students from kindergarten to eighth grade presented their winning posters at a ceremony today that illustrated how to reduce your risk of skin cancer. it stands to reason that parents are health conscious, children will be, too. and you study shows that connection really is true, especially the link between mothers and daughters. >> abby and her teenage daughter isabel or both health conscious. abbey because she tested positive for a gene last year, resulting in a hysterectomy. and you study says the mother- daughter relationship is key in choosing a life style -- and new study says the relationship is key in choosing a life style. >> for abby and isabel, that is certainly true. they run races together. >> i think my mom definitely tri

firstly, with respect to alaska -- the conversations with senator mrkowski -- murkowski others who are interested in what we're doing in alaska all the time. we're trying to deal with some of the difficult permitting issues there. the deputy secretary and myself and others have been personally involved in these issues. secondly, the president announced we would be opening sales in the gulf of mexico by june 30 of next year. that is money 2007-2012 plan expires. we are looking for four additional lease sales in the gulf of mexico. third, we want to create new incentives to move forward with oil and gas production. we have ideas that you have. for example, we have the leasing given now under an mandatory 10-year term. we believe with flexibility in the outer continental shelf, we could reduce lease terms and incentivize a more rapid development. fourth, lease extensions. we recognize the work impacts to the oil and gas in the gulf of mexico, as well as in alaska as we move forward to develop safer oil and gas regulations and oversight in the government. the president away support for a l

. >> senator murkowski? >> welcome and good to see you as always. i have a whole laundry list of questions and many of them are questions that were asked of you at hearings before the energy committee back in february and i did that have an opportunity to ask all the questions so we submitted them for the record to be received in writing. we have not yet received those responses. >> really? >> some of the questions i will ask you now are hopefully once you have already passed and are in the mail. -- already asked and are already in the mail. >> i apologize for that. we were trying to get our system to be more responsive. >> we will look forward to receiving them. i want to ask you a little bit about the budget increase for geothermal. your budget cost for increase in funding is actually tripling in funding from $101 million --to $101 million. i'm a big advocate of geothermal and what we can do with that resource. the question to you this afternoon is whether or not the department will be able to spend this out in a timely way. you have been updated

murkowski: i request that proceedings under the quorum call be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. ms. murkowski: last night the senate defeat add misguided attempt to raise taxes on the five largest energy companies that are operating in our country. that bill, as we discussed, would have done nothing to reduce our gas prices, nothing to create jobs in america, and nothing to increase domestic energy production. and, furthermore it would have hardly made a dent in our spiraling debt. put another way, last night's effort would have done nothing to address the problems that most americans care about, that most americans are talking about as they discuss things around the dinner table. this morning we're here to debate a very different bill. this is called the offshore production and safety act. this was recently introduced by the minority leader, myself, 16 other senators, and there's a very clear contrast, without a doubt, between this and what was brought up yesterday. instead of punishing a handful of companies within the oil and gas indu

murkowski: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, i ask consent that i be recognized for up to 15 minutes and that the following list of republican speakers be recognized for up 10 minutes eerchtion not necessarily in this order, but the senators to be recognized would be mccain, chambliss, cornyn, barrasso, paul, hatch, hutchison, and vitter. the presiding officer: is there objection? without objection, so ordered. ms. murkowski: thank you, mr. president. i have also come to the floor today to speak about the proposal to raise taxes on the five largest domestic energy producers, and i think it is important that we remember that we are speaking about five energy producers, five oil companies. we're not talking about a tax proposal that is broad and wide and encompassing. we're talking about a proposal to raise taxes on the five largest domestic energy producers. and i have to admit that i have some hesitation about even engaging in this floor debate at all because i think we recognize that the words in the statements t

report was requested by my colleague, lisa murkowski that grew out of the frustration with the refrain that america has only 3% of the global oil reserves, and, therefore, under this view more drilling and production at home is futile. i think that president obama has said many times, with 3% of the world's oil reserves, the u.s. cannot drill its way to energy security. well, it can. it's not 3%. the c.r.s. report came out later and showed -- showed -- and this is something that people don't want to believe, but it's out there and it is a fact that the united states of america has the largest recoverable reserves of oil, gas, and coal of any country in the world. more than china, more than saudi arabia, more than anyone else. our problem is that we have a political problem and that is this administration -- and it goes right down democrat and republican lines, the democrats put 8% of america's federal lands -- 83% of america's federal land off drilling. they have made some statements i will read to demonstrate very much they want to increase the price of gas at the pumps. the idea that

the washington post, lisa burke county --murkowski had an op-ed that the the man -- [inaudible] >> the money for our litigation is coming from you, thank goodness. our members, we have 42,000 paying members, 3,000 e-mail activists and people are responding. they are sending in the money we need to keep in court. we have an incredible team of 22 lawyers. we are working with a host of oil -- other lawyers who volunteer their time. with the help of our members and our supporters we will continue the litigation fight for as long as it takes. that is the good news. i think the other part of the question was -- oh. i don't you -- [inaudible] >> as far as where the money for the science is coming from, a lot of it is held up. bp is not making that available. antonia juhasz mentioned they deliberately made the process really complicated and the scientists we talk to, many have done incredible job collecting data under difficult situations. they can't get money to analyze this. it is kind of a mess. there is some governments funding -- funding but a lot is tied up in the court process. to say i

murkowski : thank you, mr. president. thrches mr.tic council in nook, greenland. and i attended with secretary of state clinton as well as the secretary of the interior, secretary salazar. ms. murkowski: the arctic council was founded back in 1995 and it's an intergovernmental association. there's eight member states within the territory that is contained within the arctic circle. the group includes canada, denmark, finland, iceland, norway, sweden, the russian fed rationfederation, and, of course united states. there are also six permanent participants representing the indigenous people of the region. the trip was historic for a couple reasons. first, it was the first time that a secretary of state had led the united states delegation to the arctic council. and the fact that not only secretary clinton led it as the secretary of state but she was joined by a second secretary, secretary of the interior, certainly made that historic. it was also the first time that a member of congress had attended the arctic council meeting. we met wi

i would expect senator murkowski senator bingaman to n least consider the bill and hopefully majority leader reid and minority leader mcconnell will bring it up for a vote. in needs to be done. host: the last call comes from missouri. caller: hello. i have a little bit of disagreement with mr. barton when he was talking about less government being involved with companies. i think looking over the costs here, two or three years, and aig and all of the things, we do need the government to be watching these companies. you know, we just really got stripped by all of these big companies. i feel like the oil companies are doing the same thing. they are making a lot, a lot of money, and they can set the price whatever they want. guest: first of all, bless you for being polite. i appreciate your kindness. i agree with you on a i g. this credit default swap business, derivatives, very few people in the congress understand what they were trying to do, but we did understand that when you work leveraging $1 100 times, if something goes wrong with your model, you are in real trouble. the people wh

senator murkowski has eloquently pointed out that the state of alaska holds an estimated 40 billion barrels of oil. 40 billion barrels of oil. the equivalent of more than 60 years' worth of imports from the persian gulf, yet that is -- that oil is excluded from our nation's reserve figures. the united states is already the third largest oil and gas-producing nation on earth with 28.4 billion barrels of proven reserves, but it also has an estimated 162 billion, almost 163 billion barrels of technically recoverable oil, according to the congressional research service. only russia and saudi arabia produce more than our country. so the lesson in all of this is clear. we can and we must increase domestic production of oil and gas in our country, and the record over the past five years clearly indicates that we can do it. as a matter of fact, we're on our way to do it, and we can do much, much more. for example, in my home state of north dakota, we have been working over the last decade to increase oil production, and we have -- since 2005, north dakota has increased its production of oil by more

any thoughts about how we could encourage those companies who are doing the drilling as senator murkowski said to spend the same amount of money researching how to clean up, as they are researching effective drilling practices? >> i think ultimately, the two driver of behaviors for the oil companies. the first one are the response plans and the requirement to identify resources and the response plans. we may have an opportunity when we go back and look at plan review which is something that we need to do and have the coast guard involved in plan review. how you create the requirements for the response plans and what you tell them they have to have available can drive them to create the resources. if you want to create an incentive, look at how to structure the requirement and response plans would have create incentive for them to do oil spill that would to the oil response. i think that would be one way to do it. >> okay. one -- that's a helpful suggestion. one the other things we heard looking at the -- how the oil pollution act had worked was the that energy -- inner agency commit thee

it has always been an honor working with you and working with ranking member murkowski.- the deputy secretary of the interior, david hayes. is been working on oil and gas issues. to my left, mike bromwich, the director of energy management and legislation. he has been working very closely to move forward with oil and gas production in the oceans of america. we have been working hard for over two years to work on developing a secure energy future for america. and we have been able to do this work with congress to move on in the right direction to get to the secure energy future. if you hear me or any of my colleagues on the cabinet speak to that, we are really talking about a secure energy future that is based on three buckets. the first is moving forward with a robust production of oil and gas resources. i think when you look back at the last two and a half years, you will see there has been a robust level of oil and gas production in our country. in fact, more oil and gas being produced now than in past times of our history, with record levels of natural gas. secondly,

i'd like to share that and get that into the record, because right now -- and i applaud senator murkowski and others for trying to open up and fully develop the resources that we have in the gulf of mexico. that is very significant. i applaud their effort and i join them in that effort. i would like to say we need to go further than that, because in the gulf of mexico, we have in the -- and these are figures, mr. president, of the congressional research servic service -- under the undiscovered, technically recoverable resources. now, our resources, according to c.r.s., are greater than any other country in the world in oil, gas, and coal. i'm just going to talk about gas right now because one of the big issues, of course, not just with my wife, with others, is the price of gas at the bumps. -- at the pumps. if you look at the undiscovered, technically recoverable resources in -- just on the onshore in the united states -- this is -- some of this would actually be public land -- is 37.8 billion barrels of oil. throw in alaska, that would be 26.6 billion barrels. the atlantic ocean, 3.8 bil

commerce event with secretary locke, jean sperling, the president's advisor on economy, senator murkowskithere was a big group of people there that we had to talk about the national strategy for trusted identities in cyberspace and that venue is also the best one going. but also it's held in the department of commerce and held by some of the work with the national institute of standards of technology or nist is how important it is to the economy to businesses as well as to national security as well. but when we convened it at the u.s. chamber with our private sector partners in attendance, it also showed very clearly this is not a government-led effort. this is a private-sector led effort and working with the private sector to create this echo system as we call it is really key to its success. so many of you in this room participated in some form or fashion with what i consider to be a very, very open process as we went through with the idea of creating some trusted identities in cyberspace creating a draft last summer, getting feedback from many, many people in the security privacy, civi

particularly want to commend senator alexander, senator graham, and senator collins, senator brown, senator murkowski, senator snowe, senator thune, senator saxby chambliss, senator johnny isakson, and senator kirk, as well as all of my colleagues who joined. but this vote i think fairly was less in many respects to many of my colleagues about an individual. it was about whether the senate would conduct its business in a time-honored tradition, whether the viewpoints not just of individual senators from a particular state but the community of that state, the business leaders, the -- the civic leaders, the members of the bar, their views and their evaluation would be waived successfully. and i thank everyone for the opportunity to move forward on this nomination. again, i appreciate and respect the principled debate and thoughtful debate of those who took a different position, but i think that today is not just a case of an individual nomination. i hope it settl sets the standad going forward. and, again, a standard that we, as democrats, must respect. that if a person is nominated, if that person pas