Government targets Alaska oil industry

To the editor:

We can all agree that the recent remarks from Al Armendariz that the Environmental Protection Agency should “crucify” oil companies suspected of breaking regulations was not only way overboard, but an utterance unbefitting a U.S. government official.

People in Alaska expect individuals who undertake government service to maintain the highest of professional standards and avoid allowing ideology to cloud their judgment. Armendariz has now paid for his mistake with his job and a career in government service, but a number of questions about the conduct and philosophy of the EPA still remain.

Alaskans understand the necessity to have a robust and rigorous regulatory environment for the oil industry that protects the wilderness and ensures a safe supply of resources that can allow our state — and country — to prosper. And yet, Alaskans also understand that without oil companies and the skilled workers they attract, our state’s economy would be stuck facing the same problems as the rest of America.

According to a report released from the nonprofit Rockefeller Institute in 2010, Alaska’s economy was “doing better than the average in the country, or better than most states” because of its sizable oil industry. In addition, according to the state Legislative Research Services, the state’s rapid economic growth has resulted in 108,000 jobs from infrastructure investments.

This record of success has been in spite of the EPA’s best efforts to rein in the productivity of our state’s oil industry. The main concern from Alaskans is that Armendariz is being made a mere scapegoat, that he was just stating what some people regard as a common viewpoint within an agency renowned for its hunger for regulations. For example, despite investing billions of dollars in drilling projects that would have created economic opportunities for hundreds of Alaskans, oil companies were arbitrarily blocked by developing these fields by the EPA and its heavy-handed approach toward regulation. This move prompted an angry response by some members of Congress who threatened to strip the EPA of its autonomy to issue oil-drilling permits. Frustrations with the EPA may be a relatively new phenomenon in Congress, but it has been a common source of anger in Alaska for decades.

Given the extent that the EPA endeavors to block or stymie oil production in Alaska, Armendariz just confirms suspicions that the main source of jobs and economic productivity in our state is being unnecessarily targeted by unelected bureaucrats. What’s surprising is that it has taken an old clip of Armendariz to demonstrate to the rest of the country that the oil industry and Alaska’s wellbeing is under siege from Washington, D.C.

Darcie Salmon

Wasilla