During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK) spoke about President Biden's restrictions on Alaskan oil drilling.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Mr. President, like all of us, last week I was back home in my great state, the great state of Alaska,
00:06and actually I try to get home every weekend, even when we're in session.
00:10But this trip back home, Mr. President, was particularly important because I was in Juneau, Alaska,
00:16our state's capital, to deliver my annual address to our legislature.
00:22We have a really great tradition in Alaska where the senators get invited to come back
00:27and give a big address to the entire state senate, to the entire state house.
00:35And Senator Murkowski did it a couple days before I did, and then I was able to do it.
00:39Then you kind of do a little Prime Minister time.
00:42The legislators get to ask you Q&As and do a big press conference.
00:47So it's a really important event for me. I know it is for Senator Murkowski.
00:51It's certainly one of the most important speeches I give all year.
00:55And I wanted to touch on some of the themes because the themes of the speech were actually about
01:01the long history and two visions that we have in D.C. about the great state of Alaska, my state.
01:09And boy, oh boy, these visions are competing all the time still,
01:13and it really, really matters, Mr. President, to the people I represent.
01:17When one vision is kind of ascendant, and I'll talk about that, my constituents really get harmed.
01:24That's the National Democrat vision for Alaska, which is the shutdown of Alaska.
01:30When the Republican vision is ascendant, and now we have President Trump,
01:34who's really, really focused on actually helping Alaska, unleashing Alaska's economy, then we do well.
01:40And this has been going on for decades, and I feel very passionate about it
01:45because it really impacts the day-in and day-out lives of the people I'm so privileged to represent.
01:53So let me just mention these competing visions in a little bit more detail, Mr. President.
02:01You have one vision, like I said, where there's this historical belief that Alaska would do better,
02:09continuing as almost a territory run by an absent federal landlord
02:15who protects us, occasionally gives scraps from the national wealth of America's table to our constituents back home,
02:26but they're not focused on truly unleashing the private sector opportunities and jobs and economy for Alaskans.
02:38And of course, Mr. President, this gets debated all the time and litigated all the time.
02:44We're one of the few states that has several very specific, large, complex federal pieces of legislation
02:55that often get litigated and, of late, have gone all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court.
03:03And, Mr. President, I want to talk about one of those,
03:08because it really lays out the entire kind of debate back and forth.
03:14In 1980, the Congress, over the objection of most Alaskans, by the way,
03:21passed a law called the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
03:26That's a mouthful. It's called ANILCA back home, which has had a huge impact on my state.
03:36ANILCA federalized over 100 million acres of land in Alaska.
03:42Can you imagine that? That's as big as California, where the Fed said,
03:47guess what, Alaska, we're taking it over.
03:51And since that time, 1980, that was Jimmy Carter. We didn't like that.
03:56Federal agencies have interpreted ANILCA, and they've often interpreted ANILCA to say to the Feds,
04:05federal agencies, that our role is to shut down Alaska, not provide access to the lands, access to the resources.
04:15That's the way the federal government, especially when Democrats are in power, have interpreted ANILCA.
04:22But, Mr. President, we just had actually not one, but two U.S. Supreme Court cases
04:30interpreting ANILCA in these cases called Sturgeon v. the Department of Interior, Sturgeon 1 and Sturgeon 2,
04:40where the U.S. Supreme Court, 9-0, said, now wait a minute, federal agencies, wait a minute, Democrats in Congress,
04:52Alaska is different. Alaska is the exception.
04:58Federal agencies, you can't just go and shut down Alaska the way you think you can with other federal lands.
05:05Justice Kagan actually wrote the opinion of Sturgeon 2, and it captured the principle that is at stake
05:12in so many of the specific litigation cases that my state deals with.
05:19The lower 48, what we call them eco-colonialists, the radical far-left environmental groups,
05:25they sue on everything in Alaska. You want to try and build a sidewalk in Alaska,
05:29you'll have 13 environmental groups sue to stop.
05:33You can build a sidewalk in Connecticut, you can build a sidewalk in, you know, New Jersey.
05:38You try to build anything in Alaska, here they come, litigating.
05:42Well, the Supreme Court said, whoa, whoa, whoa, federal agencies, all these environmental groups.
05:47Under ANILCA, it involved a great Alaskan, I know him well, John Sturgeon.
05:53He wanted to go moose hunting, and the Fed said, you can't go in this certain area.
05:57He was on a hovercraft to go moose hunting in a certain area of Alaska, and he knew his rights.
06:02So he was cited, and he said, you know what, I don't believe the National Park Service has the right to cite me.
06:08I'm going to appeal this citation all the way to the United States Supreme Court.
06:16And here's what Justice Kagan said, not some kind of conservative, mind you, but a good justice.
06:22If Sturgeon lived in any other state, his lawsuit would not have had a prayer of success,
06:28except that Sturgeon lives in Alaska.
06:31And as we have said before, we, the Supreme Court of the United States,
06:35Alaska is often the exception, not the rule, to these giant federal lands issues.
06:43But, Mr. President, we like those Sturgeon I and Sturgeon II cases,
06:48but I'll tell you this, when you hear that Alaska is often the exception, it plays the other way, too.
06:54No offense to my friends on the other side of the aisle, but when National Democrats are in power,
06:59they often get there through the support of far-left radical environmental groups,
07:03and those groups say, hey, you helped us get elected,
07:08President Biden, President Obama, President Carter, and senators on the other side of the aisle,
07:13so here's what we want.
07:15We want, say the environmental groups, we want to shut down Alaska.
07:19So guess what happens? Guess what happens?
07:23My colleagues here, minority leaders, certainly one of them,
07:27in the White House, they put a huge amount of effort into shutting down my state, killing jobs.
07:37Throughout the decades, here in D.C., the National Democrats and their special interest far-left environmental allies
07:44have not only encouraged this mindset of shutting down Alaska,
07:49they have used it for political gain and contorted it to keep my state locked up as some kind of beautiful American snow globe.
07:59Well, we're not a snow globe. We're one of the most important states in the country,
08:03from national defense to resources to strategic location.
08:08Just talk to the military. Talk to the Pentagon.
08:11So, Mr. President, this mindset has been on display for leaders of the Democratic Party for decades.
08:18It was on display, as I mentioned, when President Carter signed ANILCA in 1980.
08:25Our delegation secured some important terms and concessions,
08:30is what Justice Kagan was talking about,
08:33when they locked up more than 100 million acres of our state.
08:38Try that anywhere else. Most states aren't even 100 million acres big.
08:42And Jimmy Carter, when he signed this legislation, said,
08:47public lands are Alaska's future.
08:50I don't think anyone else has ever said that about any other states.
08:54Public lands are Alaska's future.
08:57We didn't like Jimmy Carter up in Alaska for what he did to our state.
09:00The mindset was also fully on display when we had President Obama.
09:10His last couple weeks in office, he locked up what's called the Outer Continental Shelf,
09:16the entire Outer Continental Shelf of Alaska.
09:20He said, I'm going to take that off the table.
09:23By the way, the Congress said, no, you actually got to develop that.
09:27It's called the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act.
09:29He didn't care. He said, I'm taking it for Alaska. It's all coming off.
09:35And then he said that Alaska, quote, needs to move more decisively away from fossil fuels.
09:43And the way to build a strong economy, this is the President of the United States,
09:47is to rely on things like, quote, philanthropy.
09:53Philanthropy. Charity.
09:56Could you imagine in any other state a president saying,
09:59by the way, don't worry about a strong economy.
10:01Don't worry about good private sector jobs for your citizens.
10:05You should rely on philanthropy.
10:08Patting us on the head. OK.
10:11Charity. Come on. Really?
10:15They do it for our state. Charity.
10:18But of course, Mr. President, this arrogant federal landlord view of Alaska
10:24was on its most full display and reached its zenith under President Biden
10:33in what I refer to as the last frontier lockup.
10:37You know what this was? I mean, it's really kind of hard to believe.
10:40That's the map of it. Every part of the state.
10:44Every region of the state. All the resources.
10:48By the way, particularly targeting Alaska native people.
10:53The indigenous people of my state. Great patriotic people.
10:57Holy cow. Joe Biden. Deb Haaland.
11:00They made sure Alaska natives got nothing.
11:03OK, the whole state. And here's what it was, Mr. President.
11:08It's going to show this for a minute. It's kind of amazing.
11:13The last frontier lockup was 70 executive orders and executive actions
11:21during the Biden administration. 7-0.
11:23By the way, there would have been more. We stopped a few of them.
11:26Exclusively and uniquely focused on shutting down Alaska.
11:31Think about that. That's probably never happened in American history.
11:35That a White House comes into power and says, I am going to focus on this state
11:41and I'm going to use all our executive authority, many of which are illegal,
11:46and I'm going to get to that, to use it to crush one state in the union.
11:52Has that ever happened? I don't think so.
11:56That's what happened with this administration. 70.
11:59By the way, I was in an Oval Office meeting with President Biden
12:02when they were at like 46. And I handed them the lockup.
12:07I said, Mr. President, with all due respect, I know I'm in the Oval Office.
12:11I'm not sure you even know what's going on with your administration.
12:14You guys have declared a war on working families in my state.
12:19And, sir, with all due respect, it's not right that you're using the power
12:25of the federal government that you're in charge of to crush my state.
12:30Why are you doing that, Mr. President? Why are you doing that?
12:34And why are you particularly hurting the native people?
12:37I thought you care about communities of color, indigenous people.
12:40You certainly don't in my state.
12:43And I even told them if a Republican administration came in
12:46and issued at the time it was 46.
12:49This is a meeting about two years ago.
12:52Forty six executive orders targeting little Delaware,
12:55and you were still a senator here.
12:57You'd be on the Senate floor raising hell every day.
13:00Because it's wrong. You know it.
13:02My colleagues on the other side of the aisle know it.
13:04This should have never happened in any state in the country.
13:08You know what else about this, Mr. President? It was a little frustrating.
13:11You think there was one national media story on this from the New York Times
13:15or Washington Post or, heck, even the Anchorage Daily News?
13:18Not one story. Not one story.
13:21The federal government using all its power to crush one state,
13:26often illegally, and I'll get into that, and nobody wrote one story.
13:31Why? Because most of the media loved it.
13:34Hey, we love all these environmental groups.
13:36They want to shut down Alaska, so we're not going to say a word about it.
13:42You wonder why people doubt the media.
13:45That's a big story.
13:47Four years, the power of the federal government to crush one state,
13:51and we never had anyone write about it.
13:56Not just that, Mr. President, but they wouldn't listen.
14:00They wouldn't listen.
14:02So a big part of these orders in Alaska were focused on this region,
14:10which we call the North Slope of Alaska.
14:13We have state land up here. We have ANWR.
14:16A lot of people know about ANWR for oil and gas.
14:18We have a thing called the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska here,
14:22set aside by Congress to do what?
14:25National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska to develop petroleum for our countries,
14:31strengthen power.
14:33This is the North Slope borough.
14:37It is led by Inupiat, indigenous people.
14:41They're tremendous people. They're patriotic.
14:43They serve in the military. They're whale hunters.
14:45They're amazing people, some of my favorite people in the whole world.
14:50Their tribe, their Alaska Native Corporation, their borough.
14:53By the way, this is about as big as Montana. It's huge.
14:57They came to D.C. eight times, Mr. President, all the leaders of the North Slope.
15:04It takes a long time to get there, by the way. It's about 4,000 or 5,000 miles from D.C.
15:09When they heard that Joe Biden and Deb Haaland were going to do all kinds of regulations
15:14to remove their lands from any kind of productive economic use,
15:20eight times they flew all the way to D.C. to meet with Secretary Haaland.
15:26Eight times. You know how many times Secretary Haaland met with my great constituents?
15:32Zero. Zero.
15:37We held press conferences. We wrote letters.
15:42Madam Secretary, you're indigenous. These people are indigenous.
15:46You have a trust responsibility to them.
15:48How about meeting with them once before you crush their economy?
15:52Never met with them.
15:54So talk about an arrogant faraway landlord.
15:58By the way, there's good news here, Mr. President.
16:00Some of the leaders of the North Slope borough just last week came down
16:05and requested a meeting with the new Secretary of Interior, Doug Burgum.
16:11He met with them for an hour and a half.
16:13First time they were in town under the Trump administration.
16:17Eight times under Biden. Nope, sorry, we're too busy.
16:21First time, Secretary Burgum, all these great leaders, hour and a half.
16:26That's respect.
16:28But, Mr. President, it's not just Democrat administrations.
16:37Unfortunately, my colleagues, many of them, too many of them,
16:41weren't alone in this unprecedented lockup of our state.
16:45Let me just give you one example.
16:47We got ANWR open, fair and square, 2017 tax bill.
16:52It's in the law. Open it up, hold lease sales.
16:57We've been trying to get that done for 40 years.
17:00Bipartisan, by the way, back home in Alaska.
17:03Democrats, Republicans, we all want this done.
17:05The native people live there.
17:07So that was done.
17:09Trump administration is going to have a lease sale.
17:11They mandate it at the end.
17:13But in the interim, my colleagues, led by the senior senator from New Mexico,
17:19and I'm going to get to that in a minute,
17:21my colleagues in a letter, boy, there's a whole bunch of them.
17:24You know what they did?
17:26My colleagues here, Democrat senators, a bunch of them,
17:29they wrote all the insurance companies and all the big banks in America.
17:34And they said, don't invest in Alaska.
17:39Don't invest in Alaska.
17:41A bunch of my colleagues, after we got a law passed,
17:44we've been trying to get it done for decades.
17:47Don't do it, banks and insurance companies, a bunch.
17:50About a third of the Democrats here.
17:52That's pressure.
17:55Don't do it.
17:57We don't want you to do it. Why?
18:00You know what they said? It was remarkable.
18:02Because if you develop Alaska, America won't achieve, quote, its climate goals.
18:10So that was Democrat senators.
18:13By the way, none of them asked me about this.
18:16Coming to crush my state about climate goals.
18:20Now, let's just talk a little bit about hypocrisy here.
18:23I was led by the senior senator from New Mexico.
18:27Now, during the Biden administration, remember, they want to shut down Alaska.
18:33They're doing everything they can to shut down my state.
18:35We didn't increase production at all.
18:37Our energy production, our oil production has been going like this.
18:41But there's one state in America where it's drill, baby, drill.
18:46The production of oil is through the roof.
18:51Guess what state that is?
18:54Oh, my goodness, it's New Mexico.
18:56On federal lands.
18:58When Secretary Haaland was the secretary.
19:02Whoa, are you kidding me?
19:04The gray here is Alaska.
19:07The red is New Mexico.
19:10During the Biden administration, the four years they tried to crush my state.
19:16The senior senator from New Mexico led the efforts to crush my state.
19:21Secretary Haaland, another New Mexican, crushed my state.
19:25And guess what?
19:27In New Mexico on federal lands, it was drill, baby, drill.
19:32They went from a million barrels a day to two million barrels a day.
19:37Where's the New York Times on that one?
19:39Where's the Washington Post on that one?
19:42Could you imagine the counterfactual?
19:45A Republican administration comes into office.
19:49And they target a Democrat state to crush them.
19:54And then that same Republican administration with the Secretary of Interior
19:58and one of their senior senators says, but in our state, we're going to unleash it.
20:03And we'll shut down the other state because of climate concerns.
20:06But we'll be the climate bomb of America, which is what New Mexico has become.
20:11Okay.
20:12Where's that story?
20:15Where's that story?
20:17Again, you wonder why people don't trust our media.
20:23This is an unbelievable story.
20:26So is this, by the way.
20:28My colleagues all, can you imagine if every senator here decided, hey, I'm going to get a bunch of senators.
20:33We're going to write a letter to make sure we crush the economy in New York or Connecticut.
20:39Like this place wouldn't even work.
20:42But if it's Alaska, you get to do that.
20:46Well, I don't like it.
20:47But here's the other reason I feel so passionate about this.
20:50And this is what my colleagues, and look, they're writing that letter.
20:54We know why the senior senator from New Mexico writes this letter.
20:57Because all the radical far-left groups who support these guys tell them to do this.
21:02But here's what makes me really upset, Mr. President.
21:05Because they don't realize what their letters do.
21:08It's not just about producing energy that our country needs or jobs.
21:13For me and the people I represent, it's about something even more.
21:20What am I talking about?
21:22I brought this chart out a lot, Mr. President.
21:25This is an American Medical Association study from 1980 to 2014.
21:32What does it show?
21:33It shows life expectancy in America.
21:36It's a little bit hard to read here.
21:39But the increases or decreases in life expectancy.
21:43So if you're looking at kind of orange and red, unfortunately parts of the United States have a little bit of orange and red.
21:51That's actually a decrease in life expectancy.
21:54We experienced that.
21:5525 years.
21:571980 to 2014.
21:59Some parts of our country, according to the American Medical Association, the people in those parts, they lived less longer lives.
22:08It's really bad.
22:09I mean, it's horrible.
22:11Now, if you look at the map, I won't go into all of it.
22:14A lot of this is where the opioid epidemic really surged and destroyed so many lives.
22:20But other parts of America, if you look here, the blue, the purple, had an explosion in life expectancy.
22:29Wow.
22:30That's pretty important.
22:31As a matter of fact, I've debated a lot of my Democrat colleagues.
22:33Give me an indicator of policy success more important than the people you are representing are living longer.
22:41Give me one.
22:42There isn't one.
22:44It's really important.
22:45So guess which state in that period, 1980 to 2014, had a huge increase in life expectancy?
22:55My state.
22:56And guess which regions of Alaska had that?
23:00The North Slope.
23:01I was just showing you that.
23:03Northwest Arctic Borough.
23:05What's the Aleutian Island chain all the way out here?
23:08Giant increases.
23:11In 25 years.
23:12In up to 13 years, life expectancy increases.
23:17Hmm.
23:18Why did that happen?
23:20Well, Mr. President, it happened for two reasons.
23:23One, unfortunately, these are a lot of the areas where our Alaska Native communities live.
23:29And they started at really low levels of life expectancy.
23:33Really low.
23:3450, 55 years old.
23:37Average lifespan.
23:38That's horrible.
23:40So it was a low level.
23:42But what else happened?
23:44These areas all started to experience major resource development.
23:51Fisheries.
23:52There's a huge law called the Magnuson-Stevens Act, which Americanized our fisheries.
23:56So the Aleutian Island chain had incredible opportunities for resource development with fisheries.
24:02The North Slope, as I was talking about.
24:04The discovery of Prudhoe Bay.
24:07Big oil and gas developments.
24:09This area had a huge mine called the Red Dog Mine.
24:12One of the biggest silver zinc lead mines in the world.
24:15Or lead zinc mines in the world.
24:17So resource development happened.
24:20And guess what?
24:22The Native people of Alaska started to get clinics.
24:26Running water and flush toilets, which a lot of them don't have.
24:30Hospitals.
24:32Gymnasiums.
24:34Good jobs.
24:36Again, what policy indicator of success is more important than the people you are representing
24:45are living 13 years longer than they did 20 years earlier?
24:50I don't think there is one.
24:52But all my colleagues came and said, no.
24:55Federal government.
24:56Joe Biden.
24:57Senior senator from New Mexico.
24:59We're going to shut all this down.
25:01They're not listening to me or Lisa Murkowski.
25:04We're going to shut it down because some radical far left groups who don't give a damn about my constituents
25:10are telling us to do it.
25:12Shame on you guys.
25:14Shame on you guys.
25:16I hope I never see another letter like this again.
25:18All the banks.
25:19All the insurance companies.
25:20Led by Martin Heinrich.
25:22Ridiculous.
25:24I wouldn't do that to New Mexico.
25:26Even though I was tempted, I didn't.
25:28So, Mr. President, let me end with a couple more points.
25:32With some good news.
25:34So, like I said, you had 70 executive orders and executive actions.
25:40As I said, a lot of these were just blatantly illegal.
25:45Well, we just found out I wasn't just saying that.
25:49One of the big executive orders that Joe Biden put in place right away was like,
25:53hey, I know you Republicans got ANWR open.
25:55Donald Trump signed it.
25:57But guess what?
25:58I'm going to cancel all the leases.
25:59Wait a minute, you can't cancel all the leases.
26:01Congress said you have to put forward the leases.
26:05They don't care.
26:07Deb Haaland said, hey, I don't care what Congress did.
26:09You can't develop ANWR.
26:11You can't do that.
26:12The Congress of the United States has passed it.
26:14President of the United States, Donald Trump, signed it into law.
26:17You can't just cancel the leases.
26:19That's illegal.
26:20Nope.
26:21They did it.
26:22Joe Biden did it.
26:23Deb Haaland did it.
26:24Two days ago, the federal district court in Alaska,
26:28on litigation when we sued to say, you can't do that.
26:31A court that, to be perfectly honest, she's not always,
26:34she usually favors the far left environmental groups.
26:39She wrote a big opinion saying, guess what?
26:42What Joe Biden did, what Deb Haaland did was totally illegal.
26:46Where's the New York Times and Washington Post story on that one?
26:51I don't know.
26:52They haven't written it.
26:54So the Biden action on ANWR was what?
26:58Illegal.
27:00Now, we have all kinds of people talking about a constitutional crisis right now.
27:05But my constitutional crisis was the last four years, Mr. President,
27:09because it wasn't just this.
27:12It wasn't just the ANWR provision.
27:15The Biden administration took this area of Alaska,
27:20the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, completely off the table.
27:27Big as Indiana right here, NPRA.
27:30They just said, we're taking it off the table.
27:34But the Congress said the Department of Interior shall conduct
27:38an expeditious program of competitive leasing for oil and gas in the NPRA.
27:44That's what we said.
27:46So that's certainly illegal.
27:48I'll give you another one, Mr. President.
27:51This is a huge critical mineral deposit area in Alaska
27:55called the Ambler Mining District.
27:57It has more critical minerals probably than any place in America.
28:00The Trump administration said, we're going to build a road to it.
28:04Congress in 1980 said the Secretary of Interior shall permit
28:10a road to the Ambler Mining District.
28:12Shall.
28:13That's what we said.
28:15Guess what the Biden administration did?
28:17They canceled the road.
28:19Completely illegal.
28:22So it's not just actions to hurt my constituents.
28:26It's complete lawlessness in the process of doing it.
28:32So, Mr. President, I'm sounding a little cranky here,
28:35because I am cranky about the attacks on my state.
28:39You get an administration saying, we're going to shut down Alaska,
28:43and then you have a lot of my colleagues saying, and we're going to help.
28:47They never ask me.
28:49They never ask, like, hey, Dan, if we do all this,
28:56will we be hurting the life expectancy of the people you represent?
29:01Answer, yes.
29:04They don't care.
29:06But I'll tell you, we now have a new vision.
29:09Because Republicans are in charge in the Senate, in the House,
29:13and, very importantly, in the White House.
29:17And I want to thank President Trump and his team,
29:19Secretary Burgum, Secretary Wright, the Secretary of Energy,
29:28the Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, all of them.
29:31On day one, day one, in the Trump administration,
29:37they said, we're not going to shut down Alaska.
29:40We're not going to hurt Alaska.
29:42We think Alaska is critical, not just for Alaskans, but for America.
29:47We are going to unleash Alaska's extraordinary resource potential.
29:52That's the executive order President Trump signed on his first day in office.
29:59And, Mr. President, this is the vision that Alaskans want.
30:05This is the vision that will strengthen my state's economy,
30:11create more jobs, and not have this arrogant federal landlord
30:18focused on shutting us down.
30:21It's a vision arising from our frontier heritage in Alaska,
30:26a spirit of strength, invention, energy, resilience,
30:31and shaking off the shackles of the past and building a new world.
30:35It's a spirit of opportunity. It's a spirit of the last frontier.
30:40And we get it from the Alaska Native people
30:43who have thrived on these lands for thousands of years
30:46in some of the harshest conditions in the world.
30:50We get it from the gold miners who traveled north to find their fortune.
30:54We get it from the pioneers who came from thousands of miles away
30:58to build new communities in Alaska.
31:01We get it from our incredible veteran population.
31:04We have more vets per capita than any other state in the country
31:09who have defended freedom for America all over the world.
31:13We get it from our construction workers and building trades
31:16who have built Alaskan man-made marvels like the Trans-Alaska Pipeline system.
31:24Which, by the way, in another example of what I'm talking about,
31:29passed the Senate by a tie vote.
31:33The giant Trans-Alaska Pipeline system that's produced over 40 billion barrels
31:43for our state passed right here on the Senate floor with a tie vote
31:49from the Republican Vice President of the United States.
31:52We get this from our law enforcement officers who have brought law and order
31:56to a rough and rugged land.
31:58We get it from our fishermen on dangerous seas.
32:02And we get the spirit, the spirit that President Trump wants to unleash
32:06in our state for the benefit of Alaskans, for the benefit of America.
32:11We get this from Alaskans who want to create private sector jobs,
32:17who want to create wealth for our state and our country.
32:22And want to reject what the National Democrats do every single time
32:27they get into power, which is crush my state.
32:31Crush jobs, undermine working families,
32:35and in particular go after the interests of the Alaska Native people.
32:41So, Ms. President, the final thing on this executive order, which we're seeing,
32:45and this is where some of my Democratic colleagues in the Senate
32:49have actually been helpful to me, so I appreciate that,
32:52is we have a huge opportunity for a giant LNG project in Alaska
32:58that will be a counter to the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative
33:01by getting clean-burning Alaska natural gas to our allies in Asia,
33:06to Alaskans, to our military, to Americans.
33:11This is a huge project that the President of the United States
33:16in his State of the Union, in his executive order,
33:20and in his recent meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan
33:24has said this is one of his administration's top priorities.
33:29It will unleash jobs by the thousands.
33:33It will revitalize our steel industry in a full capacity
33:38given how much natural gas we have on the North Slope.
33:41The estimates are this will reduce our trade deficit by $10 billion a year.
33:47So we are very focused on this, Mr. President.
33:50It's a new day in Alaska with regard to our economy, in energy.
33:55And the new day is because Republicans are back in the White House,
33:59Republicans are back in control of the Senate,
34:01and Republicans are still in charge of the House.
34:05That's how we need to unleash our economy.
34:08One day I'm going to be able to convince some of my Democrat colleagues,
34:11let us do that.