Lisa Murkowski Urges Trump Nominees To Facilitate Ongoing Modernization Of Alaska's Energy Grid

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During a Senate Energy Committee hearing last week, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) spoke about the ongoing energy grid modernization efforts in Alaska.

Transcript

00:00First to Mr. Hossfeet. Carbon capture. We've got some key projects that we're

00:08anticipating as we're looking to process North Slope natural gas. This is central

00:14to the viability of our Alaska LNG project. DOE has already been awarded

00:19funding for two CCS initiatives. One is ASRC's carbon safe hub and then a direct

00:26air capture feasibility study. Both of these are in limbo right now. We're

00:33concerned that they may be on a DOE list of cuts going to the White House. It's

00:39something again that we have been working with industry in a very

00:44collaborative way, working with the agencies and we look at this piece as

00:53really very strategic for the energy initiative that we have up there. I know

00:59you're not in yet, but I'm just asking for your commitment to look critically at

01:03this, have the ability to to defend these Alaska-based projects given their

01:08strategic energy importance. Senator, thank you for the question. As you stated, I'm

01:13not in so I don't know the details, but I do commit to looking at projects that are

01:17part of the department. Carbon capture, especially for use for extracting

01:21additional hydrocarbons is something that I'm passionate about. Prudhoe Bay

01:24benefited greatly because you didn't have a place to put the gas for a long time

01:27and you re-injected it, resulting in higher recovery. My home state of the

01:31Bakken is recovering somewhere between 10 and 15 percent of the oil in place and

01:36CO2 is a potential solution to inject into the reservoir to recover more oil.

01:39We've got tremendous resource in our country. Alaska's blessed greatly with

01:44resources across the entire state and CO2, if available at affordable levels, can be a

01:51great injectant, can be a great solution to recover more of that resource. We look

01:55forward to sharing more of the details about these projects and and the

01:59opportunity to show you firsthand. Thank you, Senator. Let me turn to you, Ms.

02:03Jereza. As you know, map shows we're not connected, we're not connected by

02:10geography to the lower 48 and our grid is not part of a continental grid and so we

02:17have some unique reliability and affordability challenges. Our grid is

02:22what we call the rail belt, so it's goes up as far as the railroad and that's and

02:27then kind of comes back down the other way, but we have we have aging

02:35infrastructure, aging transmission infrastructure that we're dealing with.

02:39We've got limited redundancy, we've got high cost to our rate payers, so I need you,

02:45and again, same point that I've just made previously, I understand you're not there,

02:50but we have a grid modernization effort that is underway. Significant grant funding

02:58that came a couple years ago to help us with this with this integration of this

03:05transmission grid to kind of boost it up, to allow it to take us at least forward

03:11for the next decade or so. So I just need your commitment to look critically at what

03:17our needs are in Alaska, again, when we're not part of anybody at anybody else's

03:22interrelated grid. Senator, it would be my pleasure to do that. I actually was

03:27fortunate enough to go to Cordova and see the great innovations that are

03:31happening at Cordova Electric, so I can't wait to go back. Yeah, good. It's confirmed.

03:35You will have that invitation. And, and finally, Mr. Doffermeyer, I know you've got a

03:41little bit of a connection to Alaska through your, through some of your law

03:47school buddies who are very focused on Alaska, Caleb Frelick, who is around here.

03:53He speaks highly of you by the way. We saw in the last administration just a torrent

04:00of decisions and regulations from interior that were absolutely contrary to what we

04:07passed into law here in Congress. It was, it was pretty tough and this was on our,

04:12this was on our petroleum reserve, it was on the non-wilderness portion of the

04:18coastal plain, it was on the Ambler access project, our public land orders. We've got

04:23a whole list of them. I just need your commitment and I hope that this is the

04:29easiest question that you will ever get. Your commitment to ensure that interior

04:34returns to following the law. The law as it is written if you are confirmed as

04:42solicitor. Yes ma'am. Wow. See how easy that was. Easy now. I appreciate that because we

04:52feel like we're pretty clear here in our policies and then when it is not, and

04:57that's not followed through on the other end, great frustration. So look forward to,

05:02to seeing you keep that commitment. Thank you Mr. Chairman and I appreciate the

05:07opportunity to blast in at the very end. Thank you. Thank you.

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