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Strategic Importance of the Arctic in U.S. Policy

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Strategic Importance of the Arctic in U.S. Policy S. HRG. 111–259 STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF THE ARCTIC IN U.S. POLICY HEARING BEFORE A SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION SPECIAL HEARING AUGUST 20, 2009—ANCHORAGE, AK Printed for the use of the Committee on Appropriations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpoaccess.gov/congress/index.html U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 52–799 PDF WASHINGTON : 2010 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii, Chairman ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri TOM HARKIN, Iowa MITCH MCCONNELL, Kentucky BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama HERB KOHL, Wisconsin JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire PATTY MURRAY, Washington ROBERT F. BENNETT, Utah BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas DIANNE FEINSTEIN, California SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas RICHARD J. DURBIN, Illinois LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota SUSAN COLLINS, Maine MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio JACK REED, Rhode Island LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey BEN NELSON, Nebraska MARK PRYOR, Arkansas JON TESTER, Montana ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania CHARLES J. HOUY, Staff Director BRUCE EVANS, Minority Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY ROBERT C. BYRD, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio PATRICK J. LEAHY, Vermont THAD COCHRAN, Mississippi BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland JUDD GREGG, New Hampshire PATTY MURRAY, Washington RICHARD C. SHELBY, Alabama MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska JON TESTER, Montana ARLEN SPECTER, Pennsylvania Professional Staff CHARLES KIEFFER CHIP WALGREN SCOTT NANCE DRENAN E. DUDLEY CHRISTA THOMPSON SUZANNE BENTZEL REBECCA DAVIES (Minority) CAROL CRIBBS (Minority) Administrative Support KATIE BATTE (Minority) (II) CONTENTS Page Opening Statement of Senator Lisa Murkowski ................................................... 1 Statement of Hon. Sean Parnell, Governor, State of Alaska ............................... 4 Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 7 Statement of Admiral Thad W. Allen, Commandant, U.S. Coast Guard ............ 12 Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 15 Icebreaking Capacity in the Arctic ......................................................................... 15 Arctic Trends ............................................................................................................ 15 National Arctic Policy .............................................................................................. 16 Supporting Execution of the National Arctic Policy Objectives ........................... 17 National Arctic Capacity ......................................................................................... 19 Coast Guard Icebreaker Assets .............................................................................. 19 Statement of David Benton, Executive Director, Marine Conservation Alli- ance ....................................................................................................................... 25 Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 28 Statement of Dr. Lawson W. Brigham, Professor of Geography and Arctic Policy, University of Alaska Fairbanks .............................................................. 32 Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 35 Statement of Edward S. Itta, Mayor, North Slope Borough, Alaska .................. 38 Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 40 Statement of Mead Treadwell, Chair, U.S. Arctic Research Commission .......... 41 Prepared Statement of ..................................................................................... 45 Additional Committee Questions ............................................................................ 55 Questions Submitted to Admiral Thad W. Allen .................................................. 55 Questions Submitted by Senator Robert C. Byrd ................................................. 55 Questions Submitted by Senator Lisa Murkowski ............................................... 56 Questions Submitted to Governor Sean Parnell ................................................... 58 Questions Submitted by Senator Lisa Murkowski ............................................... 58 Questions Submitted to Edward S. Itta ................................................................. 59 Questions Submitted by Senator Lisa Murkowski ............................................... 59 Questions Submitted to Mead Treadwell .............................................................. 61 Questions Submitted by Senator Lisa Murkowski ............................................... 61 Questions Submitted to David Benton ................................................................... 65 Questions Submitted by Senator Lisa Murkowski ............................................... 65 Questions Submitted to Dr. Lawson W. Brigham ................................................. 67 Questions Submitted by Senator Lisa Murkowski ............................................... 67 (III) STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF THE ARCTIC IN U.S. POLICY THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 2009 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY, COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Anchorage, AK. The subcommittee met at 2:35 p.m., in the Lew Haines Memorial Room, University of Alaska Anchorage Consortium Library, Hon. Lisa Murkowski presiding. Present: Senator Murkowski. OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR LISA MURKOWSKI Senator MURKOWSKI. Good afternoon. We are calling to order the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee. We are here today for a hearing on the strategic impor- tance of the Arctic in U.S. policy. I would like to welcome all of you who have joined us. Again, good afternoon, and thank you all for joining us here today. I want to start off by first acknowledging Senator Robert Byrd, who is chairman of the Homeland Security Subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and thank him for allowing us to have this field hearing here in Anchorage today. It is great to be back up in the State, and it is great to be here in Alaska and holding a hearing on the Arctic here. Most of the time we hold these hearings back in Washington, DC. We invite the Arctic experts from Alaska and from other places to participate, but there is so much that goes on within this region. And I am happy to be able to have Alaskans hear about them firsthand today. So this is a real opportunity for us, and I hope you all appre- ciate that. Now, before I offer brief opening remarks, I will take the oppor- tunity to introduce our invited witnesses. We are privileged today to have Governor Sean Parnell join us this afternoon. Governor Parnell was elected to the State house of representatives back in 1992. He later went on to serve in our State senate. He was elected as Lieutenant Governor in 2008 and served with former Governor Sarah Palin, and then on July 26 of this year, Governor Parnell was sworn in as the 12th Governor for the State of Alaska. So I want to thank you and welcome you, Governor Parnell. I look for- ward to your testimony. We are also extremely privileged this afternoon to have the Com- mandant of the United States Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, who is with us. Admiral Allen is the 23rd Commandant of the (1) 2 Coast Guard. He leads the largest component of the Department of Homeland Security comprised of nearly 90,000 men and women. Admiral Allen has a very illustrious background. He graduated from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in 1971. His career has been filled with command both at sea and ashore. He has served as the commanding officer of Group Long Island Sound and captain of the port. He commanded Group Atlantic City and the Loran Station in the Kingdom of Thailand. Throughout his 38 years of service, Admiral Allen has dem- onstrated great leadership and certainly tremendous ability to ef- fect change. We saw that in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. He served as the principal Federal official for response and recovery operations and was the Chief of Staff of the Coast Guard after the tragedy of September 11, 2001. He was also re- sponsible for leading Coast Guard forces as the Commander of the Atlantic Area and the U.S. Maritime Defense Zone Atlantic. Today Admiral Allen is leading the Coast Guard through signifi- cant modernization to better organize, train, equip, and deploy our men and women to meet the challenges of the 21st century. I thank you, Admiral Allen, and look forward to your testimony. Our second panel this afternoon is comprised of our Alaskan ex- perts. The first witness will be Mr. David Benton. David is the ex- ecutive director of the Marine Conservation Alliance based out of Juneau. He has got over 25 years of experience in national and international oceans governance issues. For about 14 of those years,
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