Senator Sullivan discusses challenges and opportunities for the coming year

Increased inflation, border security, the youth as they relate to mental health, fentanyl, and overdoses, and housing are just some of the challenges that Senator Dan Sullivan is planning to address this year.

“There’s no sugar-coating this-we are facing a lot of challenges.”

On Monday, US Senator Dan Sullivan stopped by the Mat-Su Frontiersman offices to sit down with the editorial team and discuss the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead in 2024, starting with national security at the Southern border.

“We have an open border right now, literally our southern border is open. This is the policy of the far-left of the Democratic party,” he says, pointing to the surge in migrants crossing the southern borders since 2021, using data from Customs and Border Patrol figures tallying up monthly totals at the border and ports of entry.

“This past fall, we were having record numbers every day; 12,000 a day making illegal entries. 300,000 in the month of December (2023), which is an all-time record. We are on the same track here, and are likely to hit 10 million illegals during the Biden administration, which is really unbelievable.”

One unique challenge that Senator Sullivan is especially passionate about it something he calls “Last Frontier Lock Up,” a document that lists the various Executive Orders (EO) and actions that President Joe Biden has enacted since he took office in January, 2021.

Some of the EOs include a moratorium on congressionally-mandated ANWAR leasing, suspending AWAR leases, rolling back Roadless Rule exemptions for Alaska, hunting restrictions on Alaska’s National Preserves, and blocking all oil and gas leasing in the Arctic Ocean.

“This represents the 56 executive Orders and actions issued in the first three years of the Biden administration, singularly focused on Alaska,” the Senator says, adding that when he first handed his list to the President of the United States, which at the time, it was 44, he expressed his outrage that Alaska was receiving the specific attention outlined.

“This is an outrage. There is no other state in the union that is getting this kind of attention from you (the White House), and it’s driven by the lower-48 radical environmental groups who are focused on crushing our state and our economy, and its wrong.”

Senator Sullivan says that he is “raising hell” on the Senate floor every day, fighting to undo as many, if not all, of the actions taken by the administration.

The Senator does see hope amidst the challenges, calling most of the challenges “self-inflicted,” and able to be addressed starting from within.

“A lot of these are things that we, as Americans, with the right policies, lawmakers, and the Executive Branch, can change. These are fully self-inflicted and it doesn’t have to happen.”

Senator Sullivan says it is important to look for opportunities to change the narrative and that starts with jobs and the economy for Alaska.

“That is where there’s going to be some significant opportunities. There have been some really important breakthroughs that we’ve had recently, including with the Biden administration, where Alaskans working together, we’ve made some progress.”

The Senator says that the key to improving the economy and job prospects here in Alaska is having Alaskans come together and work to push the right policies, and he points to the Willow Project as a prime example.

“This is a game-changer,” he says of the Willow Project. “Every member of the Congressional delegation, every state legislator-- every state senator and state rep--were all for it. The judge, when she issued the ruling in our favor said that it was decisive that all the state officials were for it. We got that approved and we’re winning in the litigation. CONOCO issued their final investment decision. This is going to be a $9-10 billion-dollar project, 2,500 jobs, with an estimated 1,800 jobs building it this winter. Max production close to 200,000 barrels a day and revenues to Borough, local, and state at least in the tens of billions (of dollars). That’s not ‘pie in the sky’ anymore. That’s happening.”

Another area Senator Sullivan looks at optimistically include the PIKKA project, an onshore oil field planned to be developed on the North Slope, with target oil deposits in the Alpine C and Nanushuk reservoirs. The oil field was estimated to hold 397 million barrels of oil in proven and probable reserves as of August 2022.

“Just in the resource development side of the oil and gas, we have at least two projects now that are on track for at least $10 million in investments, up to 3,500 construction jobs, and 250, 000 barrels a day. That’s happening.”

He is also looking the work being done to combat Russian commercial fishing of Alaskan waters and the recent introduction of his FISH Act legislation to help combat foreign illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing by blacklisting offending vessels from U.S. ports and waters, bolstering the U.S. Coast Guard’s enforcement capabilities, and advancing international and bilateral negotiations to achieve enforceable agreements and treaties, all being done to bolster commercial and subsistence fishing in the state.

“For our commercial fishing industry, and subsistence and sportsmen, we’ve still got huge challenges, but there’s opportunities.”

The senator also sees economic opportunities with the military build-up over the past several years, the return and resurgence of the tourism industry, and the strong recovery of the cargo and commercial aviation industry.

“All of that, all of that easily looking at upwards of $25 billion in investments in Alaska.”

Another area he says that needs to be addressed is Alaska’s infrastructure, from roads to increased broadband access. The Infrastructure Bill that he, Senator Lisa Murkowski and the late Don Young all supported was finally passed last year. And even with the criticisms he had at the time, it is set to help fund many projects to improve the groundwork.

“We are a resource-rich, infrastructure-poor state, with less road miles than Connecticut, even though we are nearly 120 times bigger than that state. We need more infrastructure-roads, bridges, ports, and broadband, and a lot of that is happening with the passage of that bill.”

He does point to a challenge within the economic opportunities he sees in the state’s future-a trained workforce for the jobs coming this way.

“That is something I’ve been working with the University of Alaska system to make sure that with these great investments, let’s make sure we have the jobs, and we don’t need to import them in. So that’s something we need to work on, and it’s a good problem to have-workforce growth and development.”

He also addressed the housing shortage, calling it a ‘huge challenge’ for not just the Mat-Su Borough, but for Anchorage, Kodiak, Sitka, and so many Alaska Native villages. He hosted the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development back in August, held roundtable discussions to address the needs and look for solutions, and co-sponsored legislation that he hopes will address the supply-side of housing.

Another area Senator Sullivan is fired up to address is energy for Alaskans, and bringing low-cost natural gas to the residents while also seizing opportunities from conflicts abroad.

“If there’s not some significant discoveries, our utilities in Southcentral are saying there is a likelihood of importing natural gas from Canada or Mexico. I don’t know anyone in a position of leadership in Alaska who thinks importing natural gas is good for our state’s economy, good for America’s economy.”

He says that since the invasion of Ukraine, world energy markets have been ‘turned upside down,’ and that presents an opportunity for Alaskans.

“I have been trying to turn that challenge into an opportunity for us, particularly as it relates to the Alaska LNG project.” He touts all the work being done on the federal side, and says that even though they’re not there yet, he can see things lining up for Alaska to meet the demand.

“The stakeholder alignment that’s happening, the global energy markets, the strong interest from the government, we have the permits, we have all the export licenses, and from the Infrastructure Bill, we have the federal loan guarantees for the project-it’s the only west coast LNG project back by the full faith and credit of the United States and the Asian allies (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) want this gas.” Of course, the Senator wants to ensure Alaskans have first access to clean-burning natural gas.

“If you have low-cost gas, especially in places like the Valley, and supplies are limitless, which they really are on the Slope, think about what we can do with manufacturing and our strategic location; it’s a huge upside. The alternative would be importing from Canada at probably twice the cost. We have to get on this.” He is hopeful that the state legislators can once again get behind a project and Alaskans can work together to make more progress.