Senator balances climate issues
For supporters of drill- ing in the Arctic refuge, the tax plan represents the best WASHINGTON — Sen. Lisa chance in decades to realize Murkowski was unequivocal the dream of drilling for oil when asked recently about beneath the tundra. rising global temperatures. The debate’s importance, “Climate change is real,” though, may ultimately go the Alaska Republican told well beyond the fate of the an audience in Anchorage. Arctic refuge. Analysts say
Yet her stance on drilling Murkowski’s stance sym- in the Arctic National Wildbolizes a fundamental challife Refuge is just as clear. lenge of climate politics: How Murkowski, who heads the to bridge the gap between Senate Energy and Natural moderate Republicans from Resources Committee, has states reliant on fossil fuels long argued that it must hap- on one side, and Democrats pen, for the economic pros- and environmental activists perity of her state and the on the other. security of the country. “To move on the climate
Her views — contradictory front in Washington you’re to some, a pragmatic bal- going to need to bring a ance for others — will take non-trivial number of Repub- center stage Thursday when licans into a coalition, which the committee holds a hear- means there has to be com- ing on opening part of the promises,” said Jerry Taylor, refuge to drilling, an effort president of the Niskanen Cento raise revenue for the fedter, a libertarian think tank. eral government as part of a “It’s not unfair for envi- planned tax overhaul. ronmentalists to argue that if you take climate change seriously, it simply requires the rapid decarbonization of the economy. Full stop. Climate change is real and demands a policy response,” Taylor said. Of Murkowski, he added, “Her skepticism is about that policy response. Anything that’s going to increase oil and gas prices is something she’s going to be very skeptical about.”
Murkowski has walked a delicate line on climate change for much of her 15 years in Congress. She routinely acknowledges that the climate is changing and that warming poses a threat to Alaska. This year, she urged President Donald Trump not to withdraw from the Paris agreement. But she also has championed natural gas exports, expanding offshore and onshore drilling and the 2016 lifting of a 40-year-old ban on crude oil exports.