Articles & Op-eds
U.S. News and World Report: Alaska Aims to Amp Up Natural Gas Exports to Japan
Senator from Alaska will travel to Japan to talk to officials about the state's plentiful natural gas In this 2012 photo provided by ConocoPhillips Alaska Inc., a drill rig at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope is seen. This rig is testing a method for extracting methane from methane hydrate. A ConocoPhillip drill rig located at Prudhoe Bay on Alaska's North Slope is seen in 2012. Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski will travel to Japan to discuss natural gas exports and nuclear energy wit… Continue Reading
01.13.13
The Hill: Sen. Murkowski heads for Japan to talk gas exports, nuclear power
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the Senate's top Republican lawmaker on energy policy, will shortly travel to Japan for meetings about nuclear power and exporting natural gas from her state. "She is going to meet with Japanese officials and take a look at what they have done since Fukushima on nuclear policy," said Robert Dillon, Murkowski's spokesman. Almost every Japanese reactor is offline following the meltdown at the Fukushima Daiichi plant, which occurred after the March 2011 earthquake … Continue Reading
01.07.13
Politico: Lisa Murkowski pens revenue-sharing expansion bill
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee ranking member Lisa Murkowski is drawing up legislation to expand revenue sharing with states to cover fossil fuels and renewable-energy sources that lie offshore and on federal land. Murkowski's plan would grant new states that house wind, oil, natural gas and other energy production off their coastlines an automatic revenue share of 27.5 percent with another 10 percent available if those funds are directed to research and development, alternative … Continue Reading
01.03.13
Associated Press: Murkowski keeps main committee assignments
ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Sen. Lisa Murkowski will keep all her main committee assignments during the new Congress, including a slot on the Senate Appropriations Committee. Murkowski, Republican, also will be on Indian Affairs, meaning both Alaska's senators are expected to serve on that committee. Democrat Sen. Mark Begich had previously announced his assignment to the panel. Murkowski's other committees are energy and natural resources and health, education, labor and pensions. ###… Continue Reading
01.02.13
Cordova Times: Unified Command briefs Murkowski on drill rig mishap
The Unified Commend overseeing salvage operations of a marine drill rig aground on an uninhabited island south of Kodiak said Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, received a thorough briefing on the incident on Jan. 1. In a statement issued early on Jan. 2, the Unified Command said Murkowski was advised that the safety of its personnel and protecting the environment were top priorities. The senator was briefed on the full response effort including challenges endured by responders to stabilize the dri… Continue Reading
12.27.12
Op-Ed: Our states vouch for transparent campaign financing
Take it from two United States senators from both sides of the aisle who have decades of experience in public life: Campaign-finance rules have a tremendous impact on the public policy agenda in Congress. Contrary to the popular perception, the prospect of getting - or not getting - a check from an individual or political action committee does not drive the typical decision on Capitol Hill. But decision-making is often colored by the prospect of facing $5 million in anonymous attacks ads … Continue Reading
10.19.12
KTUU: Lisa Murkowski Speech Opens 2nd Day of 2012 AFN Convention
Lisa Murkowski Speech Opens 2nd Day of 2012 AFN Convention The second day of the 2012 Alaska Federation of Natives convention was highlighted by a speech from Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who addressed delegates in Anchorage for her 10th time as a senator Friday. Murkowski took the stage at the Dena'ina Center wearing a red kuspuk with blue trim. Her speech frequently touched on AFN's theme this year, "Success Beyond Barriers," as she said Alaska Natives had overcome barriers by getting involved in … Continue Reading
05.01.12
Op-Ed: NOAA: A fish out of water in US Commerce Department
There are many issues on which I disagree with President Obama. When someone is right on something, however, it is important to give credit where it's due. Earlier this year, the president asked Congress to grant him authority to reorganize federal agencies. He said his first move would be to consolidate federal agencies that focus on economic development and move the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) from the Department of Commerce to the Department of the Interior. As a … Continue Reading
05.01.12
KTUU: Hope for Natural Gas Pipeline Shifts From Juneau to Japan
JUNEAU, Alaska -- After state lawmakers failed to pass legislation that might have brought a natural gas pipeline from Alaska's North Slope, new hope for such a project has been revived Tuesday -- by officials with the government of Japan. On Monday night, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) had dinner with Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda. During that dinner, held by the State Department in Washington, D.C., Murkowski talked with Noda about a key concern of his: electrical power for Japan. … Continue Reading
04.20.12
Reuters: Obama, top Senate Democrat split on nuclear nominee
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama will renominate Republican Kristine Svinicki to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, defying opposition from his own party's Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the White House said on Thursday. Republicans want Svinicki, whose term as a commissioner expires in June, to stay on the panel and assert that the process has been held up because she, along with three other commission members, accused current NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko, a Democrat, of bullyi… Continue Reading
04.18.12
Op-Ed: America's Lost Energy Decade
by By Senator Lisa Murkowski
Ten years ago this week, the U.S. Senate debated whether to open a small section of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and natural gas production. Under the terms of the ANWR amendment, a maximum of 2,000 acres in the nonwilderness portion of the refuge (less than 0.01% of the whole) would have been opened to surface development. But the amendment was defeated, and we are paying the price today. In an energy-strategy speech Tuesday, President Obama once again listed the importance of pr… Continue Reading
04.06.12
Alaska Dispatch: Beware, Alaskans: Floods are coming
Alaska's heavy snow pack, coupled with cooler-than-average temperatures, is a recipe for flooding this year. Hydrologists with the National Weather Service delivered the news during a roundtable discussion on the issue Thursday morning in Anchorage with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska. Alaskans are already feeling the effects of break up, a phenomenon that for urban Alaskans can be measured by gallons of windshield washer fluid used, Murkowski pointed out. The more you need, the longer y… Continue Reading
03.29.12
Op-Ed: Court challenge marks Affordable Care Act’s second anniversary
Back in 2010, then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi shared an incredible observation about one of the most ambitious and expansive pieces of legislation in American history: "We have to pass the bill so we can find out what is in it." She was talking about the Affordable Care Act, the health care bill that just concluded a three-day hearing in the United States Supreme Court - the longest since the Miranda trial in the 1960s - to determine whether this law is even constitutional. Last week we… Continue Reading
03.19.12
Washington Post: Federal prosecutors need to play fair with evidence
A REPORT RELEASED last week lays out in shocking detail the government's badly marred prosecution of the late senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska). Unforgivably, prosecutors failed to turn over evidence that could have helped the former senator refute corruption charges. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. moved to dismiss the case against Mr. Stevens, who died in a 2010 airplane crash. But the lengthy report underlines the need to revamp rules governing the government's handover of exculpatory evide… Continue Reading
03.18.12
Anchorage Daily News: Special prosecutor's report tells sorry tale of Stevens case
In a 514-page report, federal special prosecutor Henry Schuelke spells out how federal lawyers gave Alaskans and the nation the opposite of what we thought we were getting in the trial of the late Sen. Ted Stevens. Alaskans thought we were getting justice, without fear or favor, without regard for rank, privilege or position. Stevens was convicted of accepting excessive gifts in the form of work on his Girdwood home run by former Veco president Bill Allen, himself convicted on corruption charge… Continue Reading
03.17.12
Fairbanks Daily News - Miner: Evidence withheld: Report reveals big flaws in Stevens prosecution
The misconduct of the federal prosecutors who withheld justice from the late Sen. Ted Stevens is on full display in the 514-page report released Thursday by a federal court.Had Stevens been given a fair trial, he never would have been convicted and he would not have lost the election in 2008.But what is more important and never can be totally erased is the damage those Department of Justice attorneys have done to our system of justice.It is important to learn from this miscarriage of justice and… Continue Reading
03.03.12
Anchorage Daily News: Murkowski to Salazar: Clean up legacy wells
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski had tough words recently for Interior Secretary Ken Salazar on the subject of "legacy wells" drilled by the federal government on the North Slope. During a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing Feb. 28 on the Interior Department budget, Murkowski said the government was doing too little to properly plug and clean up the old well sites. The federal government drilled dozens of exploratory wells decades ago and now most of them "sit without attention," fa… Continue Reading
02.28.12
Reuters: Murkowski: Too soon to tap U.S. oil reserves
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The government should save its strategic oil reserves for a true supply emergency and resist the temptation to tap them now as a "quick fix" to quell rising gasoline prices, Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski said on Monday. Releasing oil too soon from the salt caverns storing 696 million barrels of crude could have a short-term political pay-off by lowering gasoline prices but would sell the country short if tensions in Iran severely restrict world supplies later this ye… Continue Reading
02.24.12
Juneau Empire: Gastineau Elementary School gets special visit
Sen. Lisa Murkowski shared a message of life-long learning and legislative support with students at Gastineau Elementary School on Thursday. Murkowski visited with two classrooms and a school-wide assembly Thursday afternoon, at the end of which she shared two special gifts: a book for the library - Alaska author Shelley Gill's "Swimmer" and a mostly new American flag, which was flown over the U.S. Capitol and came with a special certificate. Her first stop was Rene Walker's first-grade clas… Continue Reading
02.23.12
Alaska Public Radio Network: Legislators Tell Murkowski Their Concerns
Near the end of her presentation, Senator Murkowski asked legislators to communicate with the federal government and with her office about any concerns they might have. She was quickly asked about two messages to the federal government that are pending action in the legislature this session. A resolution by Anchorage Republican Charisse Millett asks the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management to clean up 137 abandoned oil wells drilled by the federal government within … Continue Reading
