The top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee said Tuesday that many of the policy changes proposed in the Interior Department’s proposed budget will never see the light of day, and said the budget is a “rocky start” to President Obama’s last year in office.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told Interior Secretary Sally Jewell at a hearing that one major problem is the department’s new climate change program.
Murkowski said the department’s proposal to help Alaskan native communities cope with the impacts of sea-level rise and other effects stemming from climate change actually imitates a Murkowski proposal. But she said her proposal for paying for the program wasn’t adopted by the department.
Instead, the climate proposal would pay for the plan by eliminating the current policy of sharing oil drilling revenue with Gulf Coast states, and using that money for the Alaska climate plan. But Murkowski said any proposal to repeal revenue sharing “is not going anywhere.”
She said the “better way to go” is for the administration to increase energy production to raise money for climate adaptation. Instead, “what I see is a continuation to block efforts to develop resources,” Murkowski said.
Other issues in the budget include an “ambiguous” $10.25 per-barrel tax on oil that will harm consumers and industry, and the repeal of tax subsidies for the fossil fuel industry. Both proposals would increase energy costs for consumers and weaken the U.S. energy industry, said Murkowski.
The Interior Department also proposes “new fees” on hardrock miners that produce vital metals and minerals, Murkowski also noted in her laundry list of budget pot holes. “The goal is to drive [miners] away from our federal lands and waters,” Murkowski said. Much of the budget priorities will lead to “energy insecurity,” she added.
