Commissioners Bill Reilly and Fran Ulmer Conclude Anchorage Hearing

On September 8, 2010 at 5 p.m. the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling convened at the University of Alaska-Anchorage Consortium Library to conduct a 'Listening Session'. Presiding were two commissioners, Co Chairman Bill Reilly and University of Alaska-Anchorage Chancellor Fran Ulmer.

We testified that:

"Secretary Salazar has created an imperial throne of his administrative position. He has not acted in response to the law but ... has attempted to make the law subject to his own authority. Your clear-headed recommendation could help set the Interior Department back on a steady course consistent with the rule of law, respectful of due process and serving the interest of the American public.

"The Secretary's moratorium applied to deepwater development. Yet, without public notice or notice to affected parties he told the Senate Appropriations Committee on June 23 that the Moratorium did apply to Alaska. Just like that. No due process. Done on his own authority. He repeated his verbal extension of the moratoria last week while he was in Anchorage. He said he had other reasons than 'deepwater concerns' for applying the moratorium on his own authority to Alaska. He said he had applied this moratorium to Alaska on his own authority by causing various approvals to be withheld.

"The Secretary's blunt use of power under the authority of his own word without notice or due process has significantly harmed Lessees, the State of Alaska and the people of the state. Chukchi and Beaufort Sea exploration was on course for his approval early in the year, following several years of preparation by exploration companies and the expenditure of billions of dollars. The Secretary's actions have cost companies hundreds of millions or billions of dollars in delays and lost opportunities. His actions have endangered the economic survival of the State, dependent as it is on declining throughput of the Trans Alaska Pipeline--waiting for new volumes of OCS or ANWR or National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska throughput. His actions have erased job opportunities this very summer for hundreds of Alaskan citizens.

http://www.northerngaspipelines.com/content/deepwater-horizon-co-chairman-bil...

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