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senator dan sullivan of alaska, who spoke on permitting reform and called on the biden administration to allow for oil projects in the arctic. this is from the cera week energy conference in houston. >> we walked up a little too soon. we were supposed to come in after the music, but we want today get start add very pleased to be here with senator dan sullivan, so grateful for you making cera week a part of your annual itinerary for being here. >> yeah. >> we've got a lot to talk about, and at the front of your mind, the willow project. >> sure. >> will be decided this week and say what it is and why it's so important. >> sure. >> and what you want to have happen. >> oh, yeah, i'll let you know. let me begin my thanking-- a thank you thank yous, here,

dan, one of my favorite people in the whole world, a rare commodity in washington, brilliant and humble, so, this is a great, a great event with him. thank you. [applause] >> truly one of my favorite people and then all of you. i was at the lunch today. one thing that doesn't happen enough in my view is that we don't thank the american energy sector anymore. a lot of administration officials, politicians attack it. okay, that's wrong. the american energy sector is one of the biggest strengths of our country, employing millions of people. it's something that xi jinping and putin fear, american energy power. i want to thank all of you. because you don't get thanked. you often get attacked and thank you for this. i'm sorry i'm doing this now. >> and the people and other energy-- . i want all of the above, wind,

solar. >> and thank other countries, too. >> thank you. >> okay. >> now everybody had as been thanked. >> but the final thing, you probably know, dan i take this chart everywhere, hopefully you can see it. >> nobody can see it. >> the administration doesn't talk about this, a chart from 2005 to 2020 on global emissions and you can take a look, the leader in the world by far by far in reducing global emissions by far is the united states of america. that's a fact. the laggard of course is china building coal plants once a day and we never talk about that either and it wasn't the paris climate accord, it wasn't the epa regulations, it was the innovation of american entrepreneurs, business, so many people here that produced the revolution in natural gas and i just wanted to thank everybody. so-- ments willow, willow. >> so willow is a very large project in the national

petroleum reserve of alaska and permeating, and conoco picked up the leases in late 1990's, trump administration approved it five drilling pads. the biden administration came out with their eis a month ago with for three pads. this is a huge opportunity for our country and it's max production 200,000 barrels a day, which we need, but here is the thing i've been saying, some of you may have heard we had a meeting, senator murkowski and senator-- had a meeting with president biden on thursday night at the white house. what we said to the president is mr. president, this is exactly the kind of energy project that joe biden, president biden should approve because it meets so many of the things that you say your administration is for, let me name them quick.

highest environmental standards in the world, by far, those who know alaska we have the high standards, but lowest greenhouse gas emissions of any major project in the world, the biden administration ei. is says that, negligible emissions it says and market analysis substitution. if you don't do willow we're going to get energy from places venezuela, saudi arabia and emissions are higher, not doing willow pumps more co2 into the atmosphere and that's in the eis. that's number one. second, the president is seen talking about racial justice, racial equity, environmental justice. the vast majority of the native people in alaska support this. support of indigenous people in our state. they say the lower 48 environmental groups campaign against willow are undertaking

the second wave of colonialism. this is from our native lead eers. they're telling alaska natives, here is how you should live your life. it's ridiculous. as we've said in this meeting if they deny this project, their rhetoric on racial equity and environmental justice is very empty, similarly, dan, as you know, working men and women, the president says he's a big supporter of the unions. this project would create 2,500 jobs. 75% of which are union jobs, every major union in america has come out strongly in support of this. terry o'sullivan, and today wrote another letter to the president, union support and a final one, an issue you and i talk a lot about, national security. national security. in the aftermath of the brutal invasion of ukraine by russia, i think it's revealed the need

for energy security. you're the best mind in the world on that. but i did press the president respectfully in the oval, mr. president, why would we be going to saudi arabia and venezuela begging for oil. they've lifted sanctions on venezuela, horrible human rights record now importing 100,000 barrels a day from venezuela and you won't let alaska produce american energy and we're being treated worse than venezuela by this administration. >> what reason did they give for the opposition, or the-- what was the opponent say is the reason not to do it? >> the opponents have been calling it, you know, look i think the opponents are being cynical. the opponents are using, you've probably seen, millions of people on twitter, they're signing up people to sign these petitions, guess what the environmental groups do with that, they use it for fund raising, quite cynical. in my view, no one has read the

eis. as i said this is the least greenhouse gas producing project anywhere in the world and that issue on venezuela, why would we go to a country -- venezuela's emissions and pollution processes are 18 times more polluting than they are in alaska. why would we want it from them when we can do it with the highest standards in the world. >> dare i ask, what happens if they don't approve it. >> look, here is the thing, and with the president -- all i said, mr. president, we want to issue a decision your eis. there's three drilling pads, there's talk of them going to two or maybe less through the final record of decision. as you know, john podesta on the stage today, that would not be based on science because there was no alternative that even goes to two pads. so we've said and we've been very clear with the white house, very clear with the

president. conoco has been, too. they go to two pads it's economically not viable, we'll deview it as a denial and we'll see, but it's not pleasant for anybody. but again, we're trying to convince them. we're respectful in the meeting with the president, but those four reasons on why they do it, racial justice, workers, national security, highest environmental standards, this should be the project that joe biden, president biden should want to approve for america. >> and you referred to the federal government as alaska's landlord. what kind of landlord is it? >> oh, my, i'm trying to be nice because i'm trying to issue them a nice recorded decision for us. >> okay. i withdraw that question. >> it's out there. at the beginning of the meeting i provided the president, again respectfully two documents, i said mr. president, this is a joint resolution from the

alaska state legislature, it's the senate and the house from alaska. every elected official voted for this. it was support of willow, every democrat, every republican, every independent. i also handed him a map, i was respectful, but it was entitled the last frontier lockup and it listed the 45 executive orders and executive actions in two years that his administration has taken solely against alaska. solely against alaska and i said mr. president, respectfully, this is driven by lower 48 environmental groups, they don't understand us. and we need a break. we are getting creamed by your administration and the willow project can be a good example of a cease-fire on your administration's war against alaskan working families and we'll see if he wants a cease-fire or, you know. >> we'll find out this week. >> we are going to find out

this week, if you care about this issue for america, for alaska, please weigh in with dlm and department-- now it's at the white house, and made by the president or john podesta. >> and the president indicated in the discussion which way he was going to go? >> no, and i've been asked what he said, i said look i'm in the oval office and want to be respectful of the president, it's not my-- i don't think i should be saying what they said. mostly they were in listening mode. john podesta and a couple other members, we appreciated we had hour with the president. it's a big deal and dan, all the people i am talking to today and conoco, they're saying it's a test. the administration says the only reason we're not producing more oil in america, recalcitrant energy companies, all of you guys, you don't really want to drill. well, we're saying you may have seen a good wall street journal

editorial saying this is a test. conoco will start tomorrow, tomorrow if they get the record of decision approved. so, we sure hope so. this is a signal, i think, how serious they are on these issues. >> let me turn to sort of your defense of foreign policy hat. and as you look back at the last year, the impact and lessons of ukraine war from the sort of strategic point of view, mobilization. what do you think the take-aways are? >> i have been talking a lot about how the invasion of ukraine, i think, reveals something a lot of us were already seeing, but we've clearly entered a new era of authoritarian aggression led by vladimir putin, but also xi jinping. they're working closely together. they are driven by historical grievance. they're paranoid about their democratic neighbors and they're willing to use aggressive action and including military force against their

neighbors and what i've been saying is, look, we need to recognize that this new era is going to be with us for decades and face it with strategic resolve and confidence and because we have so many strategic advantages over these dictatorships that in many ways that are presented here today. our network allies, our lethal and professional military our dynamic economy, our resources and energy power, and of course, i think most importantly, our commitment to liberty and democracy. i think that xi jinping and putin's greatest vulnerability is that they fear their own people and we need to exploit that. we need to press that advantage. that's really one of the things that helped us win the cold war, but we need this american instrument of power called american energy, all of the above and i think the invasion has revealed just how the folly

of the administration's energy policies which have been pretty much focused on shutting down the production of american energy, making it harder to move energy, encouraging financiers not to invest in american energy. i think it's coming home to roost and people recognize that's a strategic mistake. >> what about lessons, and how much weaponry gets used and how much -- what about preparedness and mobilization, what needs to be done to deal with that? >> i think we-- it's a great point. you know, i sit on the armed services committee, i'm a colonel in the marines reserves and it's a wake-up call, the biden administration has put forward two budgets that they put forward in the last years have been defense cuts. what i've been saying the dod officials, you can't do that

anymore, we need a much more robust dod spending, the current budget shrinks the navy, shrinks the army, shrinks the marine corps, the president is putting out the budget next week and hopefully they're not going to put another inflation adjusted cut to the department of defense. the only agency they cut every year in layer budgets and that sends the wrong signal to xi jinping and putin, but to your point we have to do much more to reenergize our industrial base. i think the biden administration agrees with that, there's bipartisan focus in the senate on doing just that. >> so, what's out there in terms of proposals on the industrial base? >> part of it has to do with longer term procurement contracts, so right now in terms of the defense budgets you get one year contracts,

right? so if a company is producing, say, 150 millimeter howitzer rounds, they don't know that they can be doing that on a much longer term budget cycle. so there's that, there's a real strong look at looking at our navy shipyards. right? we have dramatically shrunk the ability to actually produce ships and do the work that's needed for maintenance. we have submarines right now that have been in maintenance for two to three years, not ready. so this has been a wake-up call and i think this is an area of bipartisan support. we just got briefed on this literally on the armed services committee so they have a number of areas they're focused on it and i've also said on this hearing, don't bring forward another budget that's a cut and every year the armed services committee, in a bipartisan way, the last years, we've

dramatically-- the president's going to put forward a budget cut because the far left progressive i don't like the military, they know that you guys are going to boost that up. my answer to that, that's not leadership. that's the opposite of leadership. they need to lead on this. >> what about strategic minerals. you have a project called ambler. >> that was on my list i gave to the president. we have an incredible strategic minerals area in alaska called the ambler mining district. we had a seven years eis for a road in alaska that started with president obama, it was finished with president trump, proved. >> say what eis is. >> environmental impact statement to build a road into the district. there is no road there, but it's one of the largest sources of strategic minerals in the world in alaska. so we get this environmental

impact statement done, a record decision by the trump administration, it started during president obama's term. the president holds a critical mineral summit at the white house, okay, that's good, i think that's great. we should be doing that. we should be producing and mining those minerals. processing them here. the day he held the critical mineral summit at the white house, the department of interior reversed the record of decision on the amble ermining road and told alaska, start over. >> this is just one road. >> it's a road to get there, but took us seven years to just get the approval and they just reversed it and said start over. again, they talk a big game. the president's holding a summit on critical minerals and it's the same day, the same day, one of the biggest strategic mineral deposits in the country, they told us to start again. so the rhetoric doesn't match their actions and

unfortunately, a lot of these lower 48 environmental groups who want to tell alaskans what to do and use the eco colonialism approach to alaska native communities, it's not helping my state and it's really not helping the country. >> you've made permitting, one of the issues that you've worked on for a number of years. where is that? >> so look, i'll-- i agreed with a fair number of things that john podesta said. we need to do that. i was working with senator manchin and i actually voted for senator manchin's bill as i was nervous as john podesta talked about permitting reform, he only talked about renewables. >> clearly that was clear. >> we need permitting reform for everything, to build a bridge, to build a road, to build mine, to build an oil rig, to build renewables. it's all of the above, we need it and the administration is--

depends who you talk to, it's frustrating with them. i agreed with the manchin bill we need today move that forward, but right after the inflation reduction candidates or i'm sorry, the infrastructure bill, which i voted for, infrastructure bill wasn't perfect, but it had some good permitting reform in it. the administration four months later puts out new rules on permitting from the white house that was clearly targeting the oil and gas sector to make it harder to permit. mr. president, your biggest signature achievement the infrastructure bill passed and now you're making putting out regulations making it harder for energy so i filed a congressional review act, which is congress's way to rescind regulations that we don't like and i put that forward. i got all the union support, i got people who build things, the contractors, the energy sector, and guess what?

in a bipartisan way we repealed in the senate their very onerous regulations. the president said he was going to veto my bill if it got to my desk and it shows that they're not serious. >> that's in process now. >> passed last congress and died in the house and we are going to keep pressing. i agree withon podesta, we're going to press, and it needs to cover every component. especially oil and gas. >> dan, we know it's a momentous week for alaska in terms of decisions and wish you the best in your endeavors around that. >> thank you. >> and thank you for being a part of cera week. >> thank you, everybody. thank you. [applause]. [inaudible conversations] >> listening to programs on c-span through c-span radio just got easier tell your smart speaker, play c-span radio and

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>> buckeye broadband supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> the senate getting ready to gavel in on this thursday morning. today lawmakers will vote on the president's nominee for irs commissioner and consider more judicial nominations for u.s. district courts. we take you live now to the floor of the u.s. senate on c-span2. the president pro tempore: the senate will come to order. the chaplain, dr. barry black, will lead the senate in prayer.