Juneau -- Thursday, the Alaska House passed legislation encouraging the United States Congress to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil production. Senate Joint Resolution 39, sponsored by the Senate Rules Committee, supports U.S. Senate Bill 2214, which would allow the exploration and development of ANWR.

"The present state of both oil and gasoline prices in the United States is a direct result of our dependence upon foreign supplies of oil and other petroleum products," said Senator Drue Pearce (R-Anchorage), a supporter of SJR 39. "As a country, we import 56 percent of the oil that we use, and while domestic oil production is decreasing, our consumption is increasing. This dependence on foreign oil is the result of America's failure to develop a long term energy policy that includes both the promotion of alternative fuels, as well as the development of promising domestic oil producing regions."

Industry and government experts recognize the Coastal Plain of ANWR as the single most promising unexplored region in the U.S. for a major oil and gas discovery. In 1998, the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that the Coastal Plain could contain the same volume of recoverable oil as Prudhoe Bay. By exploring this area in the winter, responsible developers would not cause any degradation to the fragile Arctic ecosystem.

An amendment added by the House encourages North Slope leaseholders to make every effort to promptly build a natural gas pipeline to bring Alaska's natural gas resources to market when ANWR is opened. There are large natural gas reserves in both the North Slope and ANWR, and new technology has made it economically viable for oil producers to retrieve these reserves.

"SJR 39 supports the efforts of our Congressional delegation to develop a long-term energy policy for America, which includes opening access to promising areas, like ANWR in an effort to increase domestic oil and gas production," said Pearce. "Only then will America lessen the grip that foreign oil producing nations have on our economy and consumers."

SJR 39 returns to the Senate for concurrence on the amendments made by the House.