WASHINGTON — Nagruk Harcharek had a receptive audience as he made the case for petroleum development at a U.S. House hearing entitled “unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential.”
President of a pro-oil advocacy group called Voice of the Arctic Inupiat, Harcharek said local taxes on industry allowed the North Slope Borough to modernize communities, and listed the ongoing needs.
“Schools need to be built. Water and sewer facilities need to be built. An $80 million water and sewer system in the community of Point Lay needs to be built,” he said. “The North Slope Borough is going to fund a majority, if not all, of that, and that requires economic development.”
Tuesday’s hearing in the House Natural Resources Committee unspooled like a tale of two Alaskas. While Republicans embraced Harcharek’s message, Democrats put their spotlight on a different Alaskan who spoke of an energy crisis in his town that he says big oil and gas projects won’t fix. It took yet another Alaskan at the hearing to knit the dueling narratives together.
Rep. Tom Tiffany, R-Wis., seized on a point Harcharek mentioned: That life expectancy in the borough has gone up by more than a decade since 1980.
“So about the time oil was discovered and being made commercially viable, that's when life expectancy went up 13 years over the course of 34 years?” Tiffany asked.
“Yeah, once we started making those investments …” Harcharek said.
Tiffany jumped in before Harcharek could finish.
“Mr. Chairman, that may be unprecedented in America, to see that rapid of an increase of life expectancy in the history of this country,” he exclaimed. “And largely because of oil.”
Democrats had invited a witness from Port Heiden, a village of fewer than 100 in the Bristol Bay region, to present another perspective. Tribal President John Christensen said his community is having an energy crisis, made worse by policies of the Trump administration. Christensen said Port Heiden is dependent on barged diesel for its electric power, and the fuel costs are going higher and higher. The cost of power is so high, he said, that the local fish plant can’t operate.
“Studies show renewables could meet 75% of our needs,” he testified, “yet funding to the very projects that could save us — solar, wind, hydro and storage — have been delayed or taken away.”
Christensen said the tribe got a grant and turned to a Canadian supplier to buy solar panels, wind turbines and a battery to help power the village.
“But before we could ship it, new tariffs on Canada increased delivery costs by $1.5 million,” he said.
Port Heiden was also pursuing in-river hydro generation. The Trump administration blocked an EPA grant for it.
Rep. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., asked him about the trans-Alaska gas pipeline the Trump administration wants.
“Would that lower energy costs for Port Heiden?” Huffman asked.
Christensen said it wouldn’t.
“It doesn't reach us,” he said. “We are in Western Alaska, and we're nowhere near the pipeline.”
Huffman asked about other big Alaska projects that committee Democrats oppose — like drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or more development to the west of the refuge, in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska. While Harcharek lauded the benefits to the North Slope, Christiansen said those projects won't make it any cheaper to keep the lights on in Port Heiden.
Just when it seemed that Congress members, depending on which party they belong to, were only inclined to listen to one Alaskan or the other, Philip Wight stepped up to the witness table. Wight, an energy historian at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, spoke about both aspects of Alaska energy: Exportable supply and in-state demand.
“Alaska has extraordinary resource potential, and we have extraordinary energy needs,” Wight testified.
He said Alaskans care how development is done and want to see it enhance their wellbeing.
“We deploy technologies that work in our challenging environments, regardless of politics,” he said.
Wight knocked the Trump administration for its aversion to wind energy and for putting the brakes on renewable energy investments that he says could power Alaska’s future.
Alaska Congressman Nick Begich is an ally of President Trump but, in the hallway after the hearing, said federal energy policy has to make room for the needs of small Alaska communities like Port Heiden.
“These communities are never going to be —most of them — never going to be connected to the grid,” Begich said. “And so wind and solar has a different use-case in those parts of America.”
Begich said he reminds the Trump administration of it regularly.
Meanwhile, Port Heiden’s solar panels and wind turbines are stuck in a Canadian warehouse. Christensen said he’s not sure about the current tariff status but he said the village couldn’t afford to pay $1.5 million more than expected to get the equipment delivered.
