US SENATOR MURKOWSKI ADDRESSES JOINT SESSION

US Senator Lisa Murkowski today presented her annual address to a Joint Session of our Alaska Legislature. Good speech and timely. She acknowledged the troubling national economic situation, but blasted much of the so-called bailout package. She said, the “stimulus package that spends billions and billions of dollars but is neither timely nor targeted. Only 13 percent of the money for infrastructure and other projects designed to create jobs will occur this year.” But she senator faced reality, promising “I will do everything I can to ensure that Alaska gets its share of this economic stimulus package.”

The headliner of Sen. Murkowski’s speech was a proposal that “will enable the oil reserves beneath ANWR to be explored and produced through directional drilling from locations outside the exterior boundaries of the refuge.” She said “drilling would take place on state lands and in state waters.” The goal would be to extract at least some small amount of the oil and gas from its politically stranding beneath ANWR.

I had a chance to visit with Sen. Murkowski at a legislative reception prior to her speech, primarily to discuss constituent issues.