During a Senate Energy Committee hearing last week, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) questioned Leslie Beyer, nominee to be Assistant Secretary of the Interior, Lands and Minerals Management, about off-shore development in Alaska.
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00:00Smiling because I was given a statement from Senator Murkowski who was before
00:08this committee or on this committee in July 15th 1986 and apparently at that
00:14time my father introduced you Mr. Garish to the committee as you were being
00:23nominated to become the federal inspector for the Alaska natural gas
00:27transportation system so as my colleague has said there's a few from the Reagan
00:33days that not only understand things but understand things so well that they are
00:39they are back yet again so a little bit of committee history here so just want to
00:47acknowledge that Ms. Beyer I want to speak to you a couple questions here and I
00:53love your connections to Alaska it takes tough individuals to run the the mayor's
01:00marathon and just love the fact that you like to spend family time up there so
01:08you're familiar with Alaska the last time we had a Senate confirmed ASLM position
01:15was an Alaskan Joe Baylash he obviously got a lot of these issues that are before
01:21interior before BLM and you're going to be asked to pick up a lot in this space as
01:29you well know I know that you are familiar with the no more wilderness
01:34clause that was contained that is contained in an Elka I just need your your
01:40commitment to me and to the committee that you will ensure that BLM and other
01:44agencies under your purview abide by this no more clause and and even going a
01:53little bit beyond that whether or not you'd be willing to work with the
01:56delegation to evaluate what has happened in Alaska since passage of Anilka as a
02:02result of of BLM's oftentimes unilateral decisions to withdraw more and more land
02:10from public access so just a willingness to to work with the delegation on this
02:14absolutely ma'am given my personal affinity for the state it's one of the
02:19things that I am most looking forward to working on if I am confirmed and I look
02:24forward to spending time there and working with you on all those issues good we
02:28will invite you back often and speaking of of Alaska land conveyances as as you
02:34know we're dealing with the lifting of outdated public land orders long long
02:41overdue land conveyances that are owed under our Alaska Statehood Act as well as
02:48Native Claims Settlement Act we have to resolve submerged lands issues these are
02:54matters that require a great deal of detail time and resources but we've been a
03:03state now for for long enough and I think some of these promises that were
03:07made at statehood need to be completed we need your help to that and we just
03:12like your commitment to that absolutely ma'am if I'm lucky enough to be
03:15confirmed I look forward to working on that good good good and last question to
03:18you I know you're not in the building yet but the department has just recently
03:23announced a new five-year program for offshore development as well as what
03:29they're calling a new high arctic planning area and I get where the
03:35administration is coming from it's basically put everything on the table
03:38and then figure out how we might want to winnow some of this back actually where
03:44we want leasing to occur as you well know in Alaska there are places that we
03:49seek to develop aggressively responsibly and then there are areas that we don't so
03:55I would just ask your commitment again that you would work with the Alaska
03:58delegation we've got Alaskans that are here in the room as part of Alaska Day
04:03today but especially our North Slope leaders to determine where leasing is
04:09appropriate and perhaps not appropriate with it within the Alaska OCS
04:13absolutely I look forward to being briefed on the details of that and I will
04:17take a very close look at it very good appreciate that mr. Abbey I am going to
04:22give you an opportunity to share a little bit of your vision here you don't have
04:26much time but you have spent a lot of time thinking about many of these things
04:32you mentioned the the vision that you have for the critical minerals and and
04:36the specific outlook but is is is what we were able to accomplish when it came to
04:44lifting the oil export ban and again the strategy the implementation can can we do
04:51this with critical minerals can we do this with LNG exports is this something
04:58that in your new role you you think you can bring to the table looking at the
05:06objective analytical data that the EIA brings to bear but can we develop can we
05:12work towards developing better us strategic approaches to these very
05:18important issues thank you senator for the question in my view objectivity is a
05:24discipline is something that you can practice and in various capacities I have
05:29been an objective steward of data in other capacities I've been a policy I've had
05:36more of a policy role as if confirmed as administrator I would no longer be in a
05:40policymaking role but I I do believe that the crude oil export debate illustrates
05:46the importance of EIA there were a lot of think tanks and consulting firms that
05:50were writing reports about crude oil exports but all of them were using EIA
05:54data EIA data to borrow ranking member Heinrich's term once again this common set
05:59of facts and I think the EIA can absolutely play a critical role in helping
06:04anybody who is trying to develop any kind of energy policy to equip them with the
06:09information that they need it's a good answer thank you I appreciate it thank you Mr. Chairman I learned from the best
06:16thank you thank you Senator Murkowski yeah Ms. Byer I'd like to start with you if
06:21that's okay yeah we I'm sorry I forgot Senator Cortez Masto that was very bad
06:31you're up to bat thank you well as chairman I respect that your position so
06:35thank you