https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4Qp7DxYWYY
In his State of the Union address Tuesday night, President Obama never mentioned Alaska or the Arctic, but he took a few shots at the oil industry. Obama says it’s time to accelerate the move away from “dirtier” energy.
“Rather than subsidize the past, we should invest in the future, especially in communities that rely on fossil fuels,” Obama said. “We do them no favor when we don’t show them where the trends are going.”
“That’s why I’m going to push to change the way we manage our oil and coal resources so that they better reflect the cost they impose on taxpayers, and the planet.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski says she intends to look into it, but she wonder if Obama may have been referring to permit requirements, or increased taxes on oil, or something else entirely.
“I’m not quite sure what the president means,” Murkowski said. “Whether that’s placing a price on carbon, whether it is a carbon tax, whether it is cap and trade. I don’t know. I thought that his words were probably purposefully opaque.”
Sen. Dan Sullivan said he didn’t know what to make of it either, but he called it disturbing.
“I don’t know what more costs the president can impose on the energy sector in Alaska,” Sullivan said. “But when our state is struggling with fiscal challenges and layoffs, that certainly was not a good message to hear from the president of the United States.”
Both senators liked parts of the speech. Murkowski applauded the president’s call for U.S. leadership in clean-energy technology. Sullivan says he liked hearing the president say America has a “unique, optimistic spirit.”
Alaska congressman Don Young issued a statement calling the speech discouraging and a lecture about the president’s vision.
