A geopolitical conflict over minerals may finally be a real threat
It is not often that habitual complacency makes you an astute judge of world events, particularly those involving geopolitical conflict.
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E&E News
an hour ago
- E&E News
Climate, energy takeaways from Lisa Murkowski's memoir
Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the outspoken centrist and former Energy and Natural Resources Committee chair, published her memoir Tuesday, tying her political philosophy repeatedly to contrasts between her home state and Washington. Murkowski's book, 'Far from Home: An Alaskan Senator Faces the Extreme Climate of Washington, D.C.,' explores topics like her frequent clashes with both parties in Congress and the White House, her 2010 write-in campaign victory, and her history with Alaska figures like the late Sen. Ted Stevens and former Gov. Sarah Palin. In promoting the book, Murkowski has hinted that she could abandon the Republican Party under certain circumstances, though she acknowledges her values 'more closely align with' Republicans. Advertisement Owing to Alaska's unique place as a major oil producer and Arctic state, Murkowski has extensive stories to tell on energy and climate change. Here are some key takeaways from the book. Climate change Climate change plays a significant role in Murkowski's memoir. The prologue recalls a trip she took from Capitol Hill to Newtok, a small Alaskan village that has, with federal help, since been relocated across the Ningliq River to Mertarvik, due to factors stemming from climate change. Murkowski helped with the more than $100 million relocation by securing funding for infrastructure and authorizing a land exchange. 'My political philosophy is simple: I work for these people,' she writes. 'I work for deckhands netting our sustainable harvests of fish, for tour guides greeting visitors stepping off cruise ships, for airmen defending us at Alaska's strategic northern bases, and for teachers and road crews, whose salaries depend in large part on oil industry revenue flowing through our state government — and, of course, I work for many others who directly and indirectly depend on federal decisions, as Alaskans do more than any other state.' Among other moderate positions, Murkowski believes human activity is the chief cause of climate change and was an early Republican lawmaker to state that. But she also is one of the Senate's top oil and natural gas industry advocates, positions that she says are not at all in conflict. 'I accept the responsibility to reduce carbon emissions, and I have worked for clean and renewable energy and conservation, especially in Alaska — although the emissions of our tiny population are nearly insignificant,' she writes in a section about her advocacy for the Willow project, denying charges that she is a hypocrite. 'But, at the same time, I also fight for Alaska to retain as large a share of the remaining oil market as possible.' Willow project Then-President Joe Biden with Murkowski after a bill signing at the White House in 2021. |Murkowski makes it clear in the book that getting approval for a massive oil and gas drilling project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska was a top priority. She gives some insight into how she got then-President Joe Biden to green-light what's known as the Willow project in 2023 despite his promises not to approve new drilling on federal land and pressure from environmentalists. She calls it a 'powerful example' of the 'disconnect' between the policy priorities of Alaska and Washington. 'I put everything I had into the battle to open Willow,' she writes. 'I had a lot of political capital to invest, as President Biden was calling on me frequently for help in the narrowly divided Senate. We met many times, and every time we met, I told him Willow was my highest priority.' While the massive ConocoPhillips project in the NPR-A was approved in 2023, Murkowski says the work started in the two years prior to that, when Democrats controlled the Senate, House and the White House. 'We safeguarded future presidential elections, addressed gun violence, and brought the American economy back from Covid,' she writes of the 117th Congress. 'We also laid the groundwork that would later convince the president to open Willow for oil exploration and production,' she continues, describing the work she and other key Senate moderates carried out. Trump and ANWR Trump is flanked by Murkowski and Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) at the White House in 2018, during Trump's first term. | Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images Murkowski has not hidden her dislike for President Donald Trump. But she balances that against the acknowledgment that he helped achieve a decades-long priority for Alaska's congressional delegation — approval of oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. 'I never let Donald Trump get to me. I never voted for him and I ignored his threats, voting against him at key moments, yet I won some of my biggest legislative victories during his first term,' she writes, going on to tell anecdotes about ANWR, the proposed King Cove road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and more. A key moment was a 2017 meeting with Murkowski, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke. She describes it as 'one of the strangest meetings I ever attended. Productive, but strange.' Trump was 'enthused' about Alaska, asking about bears and marveling at the colorful maps Murkowski brought, she writes. He was receptive to her asks, like funding for icebreaker ships and even for him to support the Law of the Sea treaty, which he has not publicly supported. In an exchange that was reported soon after the meeting, Trump floated returning Denali to its former name, Mount McKinley, but abandoned it when Murkowski and Sullivan said they opposed it. He has since gone through with the renaming. She recalls that Trump 'badly wanted to be the one president who could open ANWR' and takes credit for planting a key motivation in his head, one he still mentions when talking about the refuge. 'We told him that many presidents had tried to open it up but that all of them had failed. Perhaps, we wondered, Donald Trump could do what no other president had been able to accomplish,' she writes. 'He grabbed that idea and didn't let it go.' Murkowski acknowledges, however, that her ANWR accomplishment has not worked out and the lease sales were a flop. 'But our fight to provide Alaskans with access to Alaska resources continues,' she writes. On the legislative side, she credits the passage of the ANWR drilling title in the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 to a strategy of not loudly boasting about it, in contrast with decades of visible advocacy for drilling by Alaska leaders. It started shortly after Trump's 2016 election, with a meeting with then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). 'In the past, our side had mobilized a major public engagement and lobbying group called Arctic Power to make our case. But the national environmental organizations always outgunned us,' she writes. 'Making noise would only wake the sleeping bear.' 2020 energy law While the Energy Act of 2020 was small in comparison with major energy laws, Murkowski still counts it as an accomplishment, which started when she became chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee in 2015 opposite Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), the ranking member. She describes one night in 2016, after the Senate passed what was then called the 'Energy Policy Modernization Act of 2016,' but the House appeared poised to adjourn for the year without considering it. 'The House had closed out and members had departed, but even so, at two a.m., Maria and I marched up and down the halls of the House, knocking on office doors and calling out the names of congressmen,' she writes. 'It was frustrating and we were ridiculous, but we weren't ready to give in without trying everything. But we failed.' The legislation withered, but Murkowski kept trying to pass it. It got close in late 2020, but Murkowski says Sen. Rand Paul's (R-Ky.) objection stood in the way of unanimous consent. She recalls a heated discussion with Paul in which he accused her of lecturing him repeatedly. 'I finally lost my cool,' she writes, and said she called him 'probably the number one reason that the Senate is so dysfunctional right now.' He shot back, calling her 'probably the number one reason that the Affordable Care Act is still law,' referring to her 2017 vote against the Senate proposal to repeal it. She walked away, she says. A version of the energy law passed as part of a package of year-end actions.
E&E News
an hour ago
- E&E News
Top national courts hear more climate cases worldwide
The field of climate litigation is growing in reach and influence across the planet, even as legal efforts to address global warming face stiff 'political headwinds,' new research finds. Climate activists are notching wins in countries such as Brazil, and an increasing number of climate cases are reaching top national courts, according to the latest annual report from the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science. But those advances are tempered somewhat by a backlash against environmental, social and governance factors, as well as attempts by the Trump administration to roll back climate change regulations and quash climate lawsuits. Advertisement 'We have seen over the past year not only a further maturing of climate-aligned strategic litigation to promote climate action but we have also recorded a rise in cases pushing back against climate action, which presents new challenges for politicians, businesses and climate activists,' said Joana Setzer, associate professorial research fellow at the institute. 'The situation in the United States shows that litigation is a two-way street and can be used to help climate action and also to slow it down.'
Bloomberg
2 hours ago
- Bloomberg
Term Limits Won't Fix What's Wrong With Congress
Support for imposing term limits on the US Congress is gaining steam, with at least half a dozen state legislatures approving resolutions urging a cap on service in the House of Representatives and the Senate. It stands to reason. Congress' job approval ratings are perennially in the tank, and a fresh Quinnipiac University poll reveals more of the same. In the survey, Republicans, who control both chambers, received positive marks from just 32% of registered voters. Democrats fared even worse, garnering a meager 21% approval rating. Many Americans across the political spectrum believe term limits would invigorate Capitol Hill, forcing older lawmakers to make way for new faces, loosening the stranglehold of politics and donors on lawmaking and enabling policy outcomes more responsive to their priorities.
