GOP chair pushes Obama official on Arctic drilling plan

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) encouraged a top Obama administration official Thursday to move forward with a proposal to lease oil drilling space in the Arctic Ocean within the next five years. 

During a Thursday hearing, the Energy and Natural Resources chairwoman questioned whether the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is being objective in its assessment of three proposed Arctic lease sales in the five-year drilling plan proposed earlier this year. 

{mosads}Citing local government support for the drilling plan and polling that shows high support among Alaskans for the lease sales, Murkowski said her “top priority” is to move forward with those sales. 

The question, she asked an official, “is whether you will treat that lack of local opposition and the overwhelming support of Alaskans in favor of development as a reason to maintain the three Alaska [Outer Continental Shelf] sales in the final program?”

President Obama in October canceled two lease sales for Arctic drilling rights and denied two oil companies’ requests to extend their leases there. 

When BOEM released its proposed five-year drilling plan in March, it maintained three lease sales in the Arctic Ocean, though green groups have fought to have those stripped from the final version. 

BOEM Director Abigail Ross Hopper said it was too early to say whether those lease sales will stay in the final plan, which is Obama’s chance to shape the American off-shore drilling strategy well into his successor’s term as president. 

“The secretary [of Interior] has several factors she has to consider: the position of state government is an important one, other uses of the ocean,” she said. “She will take those, as well as the other statutory factors, into her decision.”

Hopper said he department has met with groups and individuals who both support and oppose the drilling plan. But Murkowski said she is concerned about the agency’s impartiality in that review, pointing to a Wednesday tweet from BOEM in which Hopper posed with Alaska groups opposed to Arctic drilling. 

Hopper apologized for the tweet and insisted her group is being fair, but Murkowski said she has doubts. 

“I looked at it and said, how do we conclude that the die has not already been cast and your agency has already decided what it is you’re going to get done?” she said.