RDC Annual Membership Luncheon 2026

Now for a little bit of business. Earlier today we held our annual meeting and elections for the new board of directors for the 51st annual RDC board. We elected a new slate of officers for '26 and '27. Unfortunately, you're stuck with me for another couple more months. Our incoming president, Joe Balash with Santos, has to finish out his tenure at the State Chamber of Commerce.

Joe and the board will take effect at our annual convention in November. The officers who were elected were Joe Balash, President.

Also have Senior Vice President, thank you, Christy Ressler, for continuing your service. Christy's with ASRC Energy Services. We have Vice President Casey Sullivan with Marathon Petroleum. Secretary Sam Mazzello. Sam's a great guy.

Make sure you give him a bad time. He's fishing out in Old Harbor, and I understand the kings are going well. Our treasurer and new to the board is Michaela Fowler with Holland America Lines and Princess, and I will become immediate past chair come November. Thank you to my fellow officers for all the service to RDC, and a special thanks to Lance Miller. Lance has served on the executive committee for the last 7 years.

Lance will be stepping down as immediate past chair, but Thank you, Lance, for continuing your service as a board member. Let's hear a loud round of applause for Lance.

This year, we're also excited to welcome our new 7 new members to our board. Please turn your attention to the screen above to see their names. Really excited to add Cora Campbell with Silver Bay Seafoods, Clark Gilliam with Navarre Holdings, Terry Howard with Central Environmental, Kevin Meyer with Repsol, Mark Slaughter with Hex, and welcome back to Alaska, Mr. Cam Tuohy and Shell. Let's hear it for those folks.

We've also confirmed 5 new members to our executive committee: Michelle Egan with Alyeska Pipeline, Shalon Harrington with Seerie, Stephanie Moreland with Trident Seafoods, Matt Shuckaro with Hillcorp, and Kristi Terry with the Alaska Railroad. Let's hear it for those fine members.

This is where we're going to go off script a little bit. I apologize, Connor and Jennifer. I hope most of you know that Alaska Airlines has recently expanded our service to not only North and South America, but we've decided to go over the pond to great places like London and Rome. And we just recently started service to Reykjavik. I hope as you came in the room, you were all given a little white ticket.

If you weren't, at some point between now and the end of the event, make your way to the back to get your white ticket. One lucky person will leave today with two international tickets anywhere Alaska Airlines and Hawaii goes, including Tahiti, Australia, Asia, or our new destinations across the pond. So get your white ticket if you don't have one. Great opportunities to come.

And now it is my honor to introduce our Congressman for All Alaska, Nick Begich. Congressman, thank you for the work you do in Washington to develop policies that help grow our oil and gas, mining, fishing, timber, and tourism industries across Alaska. And know that we are all partners moving forward. With that, please help me— please help me welcome the Congressman for All Alaska, Mr. Nick Bagich.

Another great turnout for the Resource Development Council. Such an important organization. You know, as I was looking at the organizations that are sponsoring today's event, you know, we really do have an incredible cross-section of folks across Alaska industry, all unified under the one banner of making sure that we are developing the resources that we are blessed with in the state of Alaska, and we're doing so responsibly and sustainably. You know, so many policymakers here today that have been involved in the ongoing discussion for how we go about developing resources that have heretofore been stranded on Alaska's North Slope. Of course, I'm talking about the 100 trillion cubic feet plus of Alaska natural gas.

And getting that to market. And I just want to take a moment and thank the legislators who have chosen to be a part of the dialogue, not a roadblock to this process. Let's give those legislators a hand for working so hard.

Obviously, that conversation is ongoing in Juneau, and we need to make sure that our senators understand just how important it is for us to get to yes. And my encouragement as we leave here today, make sure that you're reaching out to those state senators that represent you and understand that you are supportive of making sure that we're doing everything we can to get that gas line built. You know, we recognize just how transformational resources have been for the state of Alaska, whether that's oil and gas, whether that's critical minerals or base metals, whether that's precious metals or rare earths, whether that's timber or fishing or tourism, which is a form of a renewable resource that we have in abundance in Alaska, we are a resource state. We are a resource state, and our future economically depends upon our ability to access and utilize those resources that we've been blessed with. We all know about TAPS.

We know how transformational that was and how important it is it has been to making sure that we keep a low tax pressure in Juneau, making sure that we don't have a statewide sales tax and a statewide income tax, making sure that we can be prosperous with good opportunities, not just for our generation, for the generations to come. Well, the natural gas line is that next generational opportunity for the state of Alaska, and we, I believe, need to be doing everything we can to see that come to fruition. Now, a big part of what we've been doing in Washington has been getting Washington out of the way. We have an incredible track record over the last year and a half of opening the state of Alaska, whether that's through the budget reconciliation bill last year, which I'm proud to say has mandated 30 million acres of Alaska lands made available for oil and gas leasing over the next 10 years. That is huge.

And it's so exciting to see our friend Cam Toowe come back to Alaska. And why is Cam back in Alaska? Because Shell is back in Alaska. And why is Shell back in Alaska? And why is Exxon investing again?

Because of that legislation, that pivotal legislation that mandated lease sales in the National Petroleum Reserve. A part of Alaska set aside for its resource potential over 100 years ago is now being made available for development, and people are excited again. It's not just making that resource available, though. It's making sure that we have durable— a durable regulatory environment for these companies to come back into Alaska and invest. And that's something that I've been focused on with the senators, making sure that we're passing CRAs, Congressional Review Act actions, that repeal the previous administration's overbearing regulatory environment in these regions of the state, such that no future president can come back in and take a similar action.

They've got to utilize Congress if they want to do something like they did previously again. And that provides people with the level of confidence necessary to invest again. And we saw that in the NPRA when we had the strongest lease sale performance of any lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve just a few months ago. Big news for the state of Alaska. Of course, we've got lands in ANWR that are opening up again, and we're going to have additional opportunities for lease sales there.

I'm excited about what the future holds for Alaska in those respects. In addition to making all this land available finally for investment and development. We also achieved something I think pretty historic. For those of you who have tracked Alaska history, you know that we were promised as a state an outsized share of revenue coming to the state of Alaska, but we've never been able to do that. It's been 50/50 split with the feds ever since statehood.

But as a part of this bill, we have an opportunity now to do better than that. We have a 70/30 split on these leases for the state of Alaska. That's big. That's big for the state.

You know, we talk so much about the importance of making sure we're investing in schools, making sure that we have good retirement plan options for our state employees, making sure that we have the resources we need for capital programs in the state of Alaska. Those things don't happen without development. Those things don't happen without a solid gas line. Those things don't happen without expanding the NPRA, because those things bring in revenue that we need to balance the state books without burdening our citizens with new taxes. That's the connection between federal policy and what happens here on the ground.

Now, we can't do that without a strong relationship with the federal government. And I will say, I'm happy to report that we are building a strong relationship with regulators administrators and others down in D.C. that are here to help us get to yes, to hear— here to help us figure out how we can go about developing. For so long, for many years, it's been the case that in Alaska we have to fight the people from D.C. And I'm happy to see an emerging partnership evolving with our friends in D.C. And I think that there's a great testament to that, to represent— represented by the people that have been here just a few weeks ago. The Interior Secretary was with me up on the North Slope. We were in Anaktuvuk Pass together to make an announcement that allows people to use ATVs in Anaktuvuk Pass to finally be able to hunt again in their own backyard.

These are people that were promised this capability, this ability to go hunt on the lands that they had historically been stewards of for thousands of years, and they were shut down by the federal government saying, "No, you can't do this anymore," by a regulator, what I call cubicle lawmaking, someone who decides that they're responsible for making laws down thousands of miles away from Alaska. Well, this was so important to the Interior Secretary that he came to Alaska. He flew to Anaktuvuk Pass to make this announcement in person and speak with the people in person. And that is not something that we saw in the previous administration. I'm pleased today to be able to welcome the Deputy Administrator of the EPA, Mr. Fatui.

Thank you for being here with us. Thank you for your emerging partnership with Alaska and making sure that we can make the, the resources of our great state available to the people of this great nation. And we know that the EPA is a partner in responsible development, and we so appreciate The partnership that you've been developing with us under your leadership and the leadership of your team. Folks, there's a lot to be optimistic about for Alaska. For the first time in a long time, people have hope again.

People have confidence in our state again. It's been evidenced by the development investments that have been made. It's been evidenced by the new relationship with the administration. It's been evidenced by the progress that that we've made as a federal delegation to lock these gains in law. And my promise to you is that we will continue to do that, and I will continue to do that for as long as I'm in this position.

Thank you very much.

Congressman, your work matters. You're making a difference, and we appreciate you helping us advance RD&C's mission of responsible resource development in Alaska. Thank you, sir. One more hand for the Congressman.

Well, today's about leadership and it's about everybody in this room. RDC's advocacy only works and it's only made possible by the generosity of the members and sponsors who truly could not— we could not do what we do without you. Please look at your programs and on the screen above for our listing of general sponsors. I'd like to call out some specific ones that have been with us a long time and made major investments today. Our good friends at ConocoPhillips, if we could hear for ConocoPhillips.

New to Alaska but creating a lot of potential opportunity, our friends at Glenfarm.

And we appreciate our unions, especially the Elastic Alaska District of Labor. Thank you, gentlemen, very much for participation and your investment.

I'd also like to recognize our platinum sponsors who include ExxonMobil, Hilcorp, Kinross, NANA, and our friends at the North Slope Borough. Let's hear it for them.

We also appreciate the many gold and silver sponsors In all, we have over 80 distinguished companies from across Alaska that are here with us today supporting us. So thank you all. As the name of today's event suggests, this is our annual membership luncheon to recognize and support, uh, for RDC's mission. We thank you for your continued support. As members of RDC, you believe in the core mission to grow Alaska through responsible resource development.

To accomplish this mission, we must continue to grow our membership as well. Which in turn strengthens the collective voice of the Resource Development Council of Alaska. Our voice is strongest when we have a diverse membership from Ketchikan to Uktiavik. If you're not already a member, I encourage you to reach out to Connor or reach out to Jennifer to join because RDC does a great job advancing Alaska's economy. Especially like to thank our staff.

Let's hear it for Connor Hrdukovic, our executive director. And I think this is your first meeting as our executive director.

Helping Connor and making it all work is Jennifer Kuhlman. Jennifer, are you in here? Let's hear it for Jennifer. She's probably working somewhere.

And the lady that keeps the money flowing and just— she's a great person— April Cooley is RDC's bookkeeper. Thank you very much, April. Let's hear it for April.

And as you came in, you saw many volunteers. We couldn't make this work without the small army of volunteers we have to make this all possible. These volunteers come from RDC sister organizations like Alaska Resource Education, State Chamber, the Alliance. We all work together to ensure Alaska advances. So let's hear it for all of our partners.

Finally, I'd like to ask if there are any elected officials in the room. I know a lot of them are down in Juneau, but if you're an elected official or you've been an elected official, would you please stand up and be recognized? We appreciate you.

Your commitment to public service and for Alaska is welcome. And without you, we wouldn't be where we are today. So thank you very much. And now it is my distinct honor to introduce our keynote presentation today. David Fatui was sworn in as Deputy Administrator for the United States Environmental Protection Agency on June 16th, 2025.

You'll note the date, just about a year back. Boy, I bet it's been a quick year. Fatui is an experienced environmental attorney who previously served in senior roles at the EPA. During his first term of the Trump administration, Fatui served as EPA's Acting General Counsel and Principal Deputy General Counsel. Prior to rejoining the agency, Fatui was a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Gibson Dunn Crutcher LLP practicing environmental law.

Fatui grew up in Oklahoma and holds a BA from Vanderbilt University and a JD from Harvard Law School. Before entering private legal Before entering private practice, Batouille served as a law clerk for the Honorable Raymond W. Grutter in the U.S. Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit. Please help me welcome the Deputy Administrator Batouille.

Well, thank you all very much. It's a real privilege to be here with you. Thank you for that very kind introduction. Thank you, Congressman Begich, for the very kind words as well, and our continued partnership. It's a pleasure for me to join you all as EPA's Deputy Administrator.

As was noted, yesterday marked my 1-year anniversary back on the job at EPA. It has flown by, but we've accomplished a lot over the past year and over the past 17 months. Since the beginning of the second term of the Trump administration, and it really is a privilege for me to be back at EPA carrying out the mission of the agency and the priorities of President Trump and Administrator Lee Zeldin. I want to thank some folks who are with us today, including our Regional Administrator Emma Poken and our Chief of Staff here in EPA Region 10, Christina Carpenter, the entire Region 10 team, including folks who are based here in EPA's Alaska office. Thank you all for everything that you do to carry out the mission of the agency and to work directly with our stakeholders here in Alaska.

Thank you.

My visit today to the state, which is my first chance to get to come to Alaska, so So it's a real honor to be here and meet with folks directly and understand both the tremendous opportunities that are in front of Alaska and also the unique challenges to make those opportunities into reality. So it's a real pleasure to be here in person to get to see the state and to get to talk with you all directly. Administrator Zeldin has been here multiple times, including last February. So I think I've, I've gotten a little bit of an easier assignment, but he has come up multiple times over his tenure leading the agency. And we've also had senior EPA leadership from Washington as well as our Seattle regional office come up to the state multiple times during the second term of the Trump administration to hear directly from, from stakeholders about the important issues facing you all every day.

You know, for too long, heavy-handed and misguided approaches from previous administrations have hurt Alaska's economy and way of life, and that extends to fishing, to forestry, to mining, to tourism, to the energy sector. And some of you have made the trip to Washington to tell us about the hardships that that you faced from actions that EPA has taken in prior administrations, and I want to thank you for sharing your perspectives with us. And I also know how vitally important it is for me to listen and hear from you all directly during my time here in the state. The Trump EPA knows that Alaska plays a critical role in sustaining our nation's economy, from enhancing our domestic energy production to ensuring that we continue to have the resources we need to thrive as a nation. And as we commemorate our nation's 250th anniversary, we're all celebrating America's history and the diverse landscapes that define our national identity, especially the towering mountains, the vital ecosystems, unmatched resources, and vast wilderness that the Last Frontier has to offer.

And it's those unique characteristics that drive economic opportunities in communities all across this great state. And that's why you all are top of mind for us at the Trump EPA as we work to re-envision our regulatory landscape and ensure that our nation's energy and resource dominance is sustained while maintaining the highest levels of environmental protection. While prior administrations made it harder and at times impossible to unleash American energy and natural resources, the Trump EPA has spent the last 17 months delivering real results through permitting reform, regulatory reform, cooperative federalism, applying sound science, and following the rule of law. Our focus has never wavered from fulfilling our core mission. And instead, with every action that we've taken, we've proven that you don't have to choose between protecting human health and the environment on the one hand, and growing our economy and reducing the cost of living on the other.

We can and will have both. Thanks to actions that the Trump EPA has taken to cut red tape, Americans are seeing over a trillion dollars in regulatory savings thus far. What does that mean in real terms? It means that the price of a new car will be $2,400 less less on average without crushing EV mandates. It means that replacing refrigeration systems will cost less than it would have otherwise.

It means that building a new factory or expanding an existing facility is now more attainable. We know that Alaskans are looking to their state and local leaders for guidance more and more than Washington bureaucrats. And that is a great thing because Alaskans know Alaska best. For example, just this year Alaska has applied to run the Underground Injection Control Program and the Hazardous Waste Permitting Program at the state level. This is a terrific step forward and we applaud the state for seeking to take on these responsibilities and we expect to finalize those approvals later this year.

Just be— Yeah, thank you. We're very pleased that the state is willing to step up to take on those permitting programs, and we're here to support any state that wants to take primacy or assume delegated authority over an EPA permitting program where we have the authority to hand the baton off to the state. Just because Alaska is being put in the driver's seat to steer its own future does not mean that at the federal level, we've lost our focus on doing our part to make life better for Alaskans. On day one, President Trump recognized the importance of Alaska's resources by signing an executive order that unlocks Alaska's true economic power. That order seeks to reduce regulatory red tape, fast-track critical infrastructure projects like the Alaska LNG Project, and galvanize efforts to slash permitting delays, like the— to give, rather, Alaskan businesses the certainty that you need to secure our domestic supply chains and help solidify Alaska as America's premier energy and mineral powerhouse.

When you couple that executive order with President Trump's National Energy Dominance Council, on which EPA serves as a member, We are truly bringing the full force of the federal government together to support Alaskans and coordinate across agencies to break logjams and achieve efficiencies. Through the council, EPA has partnered with the Energy Department, the Department of the Interior, and other administration officials to support key programs for power generation, lowering consumer costs, and putting an end once and for all to the previous administration's attempts to pick winners and losers by subsidizing preferred market participants and applying heavy-handed regulations. We're also ensuring that our focus is squarely on American energy, which includes expanding energy dominance abroad. And at the end of the day, we know that America produces energy more sustainably than anywhere else. Earlier this year, Administrator Zeldin and our team traveled to Japan to sign agreements and partnerships with our Indo-Pacific allies.

While there, the administrator met with 17 different nations and their energy ministers, who expressed a strong interest in energy that's produced right here in Alaska. Administrator Zeldin shared with them that while it takes Japan nearly a month to secure oil from the Middle East, They can receive deliveries from Alaska in just 8 days. As Indo-Pacific nations look to further diversify their energy portfolio, Alaskan energy is a strategic choice thanks to our freedom of navigation and your industry's hard work. Your efforts also help to ensure that our reliance on foreign sources of critical minerals comes down, and we're talking about extraction through processing. We have these resources right here in Alaska with some of the largest zinc, copper, and graphite deposits in the world.

And as you're well aware, we need these minerals even more today to power new technologies. Alaska's resources, of course, don't stop at the shoreline. They strive— they thrive in your waters. Alaska's commercial fishing industry is the lifeblood of your communities and is a global economic powerhouse, fueling tens of thousands of jobs and supplying over 60% of all seafood harvested in the United States. From world-renowned salmon to pristine king crab, Alaska quite literally feeds the world.

And just like your energy and mineral sectors, your fisheries are managed in a way that allows for economic success while protecting the natural world. At the Trump EPA, we recognize that for these industries to thrive, the regulatory rules of the road must be clear, consistent, and well-grounded in the law. Today, I want to walk through with you some of our biggest achievements impacting Alaskans over the past year, including some of our major regulatory reform efforts and our permitting streamlining efforts. There's no better place to start than with the single largest deregulatory action in U.S. history, the rescission of the 2009 Obama EPA greenhouse gas endangerment finding and the repeal of all subsequent greenhouse gas standards for light, medium, and heavy-duty vehicles. We estimate that this action by itself will save $1.3 trillion in regulatory costs.

More importantly, As I mentioned, the action means that the price of a new motor vehicle on average will come down by $2,400. And importantly, the action helps restore consumer choice so that manufacturers can build cars consumers want to buy and consumers can choose the cars that are right for them and their families. In 2009, when the endangerment finding was issued, the Obama EPA made many legal leaps to determine that greenhouse gas emissions from new motor vehicles contribute to air pollution that may reasonably be anticipated to endanger human health and welfare, which is the legal standard in Section 202 of the Clean Air Act. In the intervening 16 years, many of these assumptions have failed to materialize. However, the Obama EPA's endangerment finding continued to serve as the legal prerequisite to GHG vehicle regulations for trucks, for cars, and for engines.

In our— in our review, we looked at the legal foundation of the 2009 endangerment finding. We looked at the text of the Clean Air Act. We looked at intervening Supreme Court decisions, like the decisions in the West Virginia against EPA case. And the Loper Bright case. And our conclusion was clear: Section 202 of the Clean Air Act does not provide EPA with statutory authority to prescribe motor vehicle GHG emission standards to address global climate change concerns.

And without that authority, the endangerment finding was not valid, and the agency cannot retain the regulations that were built on top of it. Moreover, We ran some of the same modeling that was used by the prior administration to determine whether elimination of all GHG emissions from all motor vehicles on the road, which of course we lack complete authority to require, to see whether that would have any material impact on global average temperatures or sea levels in the year 2050 or the year 2100. And it turns out, based on the last administration's own modeling, that there would have been almost no real impact at all. The projected changes were well under the model's own margin of error. So the last administration had us spending trillions of dollars in compliance costs in exchange for essentially intangible environmental benefits.

We put the American consumer and manufacturers back in the driver's seat. The Trump EPA is not going to tell you which car to buy or which car to build, but we are going to ensure that you have the freedom— the freedom, rather, to pick the vehicle that's right for you. While repealing the endangerment finding has taken on much of the spotlight, we've heard consistently from Americans and from oil and gas producers that the largest producers to the— I'm sorry, from the largest producers to the families that have a single well on their land that provides for their retirement income, that the Biden EPA's oil and gas rules were unworkable and unnecessarily restricted American energy dominance. The Biden EPA imposed billions in regulatory costs through its overly burdensome regulations., and we're taking on the hard work of revising many of those requirements. At the start of last year, we embarked on a comprehensive reconsideration of the so-called Quad OBC rules that will directly and positively impact the oil and gas sector by prioritizing American energy and cutting red tape.

We started by extending unworkable deadlines for the Biden— from the Biden rule for over 18 months. At the end of 2025, we added even more compliance extensions, and combined, those two rules resolved short-term issues while we continued the process of comprehensively reconsidering the requirements. This was just the beginning. In April, a couple of months ago, we revised additional aspects of the oil and gas rules based on feedback we received. For example, we extended temporary flaring provisions We adjusted the net heating value monitoring and testing provisions, and we removed the general exemption from net heating value monitoring for associated gas for any control device used at a well site or at affected facilities.

And here's the best part. We do not expect any emissions changes as a result of these final rules. But the changes will reduce the number of unnecessary tests previously required by up to 141,000 tests a year, about 1.9 million unnecessary tests reduced over the next 15 years. We estimate that that action alone will save $2.5 billion in compliance costs and will help lower the price of energy. Several oil and gas owners and operators also raised concerns that obstacles outside of your control sometimes prevent associated gas from getting into pipelines, whether it's a downstream outage or maintenance, sudden surges that exceed capacity, or, or simply a lack of infrastructure in the area.

So we recently issued guidance to provide much-needed clarity on the topic of temporary flaring, and according to our partners at the Department of Energy, this clarification alone will allow for the continued production tens of thousands of barrels a day. And our Office of Air is working with companies and EPA's regional offices to address further clarifications that may be needed for the flaring provisions based on site-specific factors. And as we look to the future, we're working diligently on a second, broader reconsideration action that will further drive down the costs of the rule and further reduce the cost of living for for all Americans. We intend to propose this action and solicit public comment this summer, moving expeditiously while following all required process. As we're working to ensure that energy sources already up and running continue to produce at full force, the Trump EPA also understands the vital importance of getting new energy infrastructure built, which is exactly why we are working so hard to streamline the permitting process.

As President Trump rightly prioritizes reshoring American jobs through manufacturing, the importance of having affordable energy only increases. Projects like Alaska LNG need to be supported and the permitting process needs to be expedited, and communities are the ones who suffer when that process gets bogged down. The Trump EPA has taken bold action to to reform air permitting to cut through red tape and enhance our partnership with air regulatory partners like Alaska DEC, while taking the necessary steps to safeguard our environment, create American jobs, and incentivize more investment. In May, we brought much-needed clarity to the preconstruction permitting requirements under the Clean Air Act. We issued a proposed rule that would bring more flexibility to building non-emitting components or structures like pads and wiring, piping and associated support structures before having to obtain a new source review permit.

We cannot constrain American domestic energy development and American ingenuity by slowing down parts of the construction process that have no material impact on air quality. We've taken other critical steps to reform other parts of the air permitting process. Process. We've recently reissued our no second-guessing policy regarding the actual to projected actual applicability test under new source review. We're ensuring that EPA will not second-guess your project emissions projections unless there is a clear error, further expediting the permitting process.

And we're not going to apply our previous reactivation policy. So under our new approach, idled facilities like power plants do not need new air permits to simply restart. We've also taken steps to streamline the Clean Air Act Title V permitting process, cutting down requirements for permit renewals and streamlining EPA's review of Title V permits concurrently with the state's review process. And we're working on new— new source review guidance for permitting authorities on how EPA expects to process permit revisions. But as each of you know, air permitting isn't the only program that has traditionally stalled vital energy projects.

Consistent with the Unleashing American Energy Executive Order from President Trump, we're also working to update our National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, implementing regulations to accelerate our actions that require NEPA reviews. Those updates will streamline our regulations by setting time and page limits for environmental impact statements, allowing EPA to adopt additional categorical exclusions, focusing on analysis only as to those actions that are close in time and place, and promoting consistency across our programs. These proposed reforms will shortly be out for public comment, and we look forward to hearing your views as we consider a final rule. And we can't forget about some of our very important water-related actions. We understand the extreme importance for Alaska of the thousands of water bodies in the state.

The state also shares the Trump EPA's objective to efficiently and effectively manage the state's natural resources. And to do that, we need to end the Biden administration's overreach under the Clean Water Act. For too long, Section 401 of the Clean Water Act has been weaponized by activists activists to block critical infrastructure projects like pipelines and export terminals based on factors that have nothing to do with water quality. And just as we're taking on action to streamline air permitting, we're also taking decisive action to ensure that water quality certifications are used for their intended purpose, to protect our waters and not to sabotage national energy security. Section 401 of the Clean Water Act provides states and authorized tribes with authority to grant a water quality certification and impose conditions before a federal agency can issue a license or permit.

If a state denies a certification, the federal agency cannot issue the license or permit. The Trump EPA is committed to maximizing permitting efficiency and eliminating— eliminating, rather— permitting delays. And at the same time, we're committing to following the law and supporting the important role that states play in our federalist system. In January, just a few months ago, we proposed a rule that would return this section of the Clean Water Act to its proper statutory purpose. Our proposed changes include narrowing the scope of certification to discharges to a water of the United States, setting time limits, prohibiting states from requiring an applicant to withdraw and resubmit submit a request to restart the clock, defining the contents that must be included in a certification decision, and providing a host of other permitting— other streamlining, rather, changes to the program.

We're reviewing the almost 90,000 comments that we received on the proposal and intend to get a final rule out on this this summer. Additionally, late last year, the Trump EPA proposed a new definition of waters of the United States. That sets the regulatory scope of the Clean Water Act, and we're actively reviewing the hundreds of thousands of comments that we received on that proposal. The issue of the Clean Water Act scope has been uncertain for too long. The Biden administration made matters worse by issuing a rule that conflated and contradicted direction from the Supreme Court.

The court has made clear that only relatively permanent waters known in ordinary course as a river or a stream or a lake are jurisdictional, and that wetlands are not jurisdictional in their own right, but only when they are adjacent to a covered water and have a continuous surface connection with that water. The Biden EPA's approach neither fully implemented the court's decision nor provided the public with an opportunity for comment. We've remedied those errors in our proposed rule. The state has also pointed out in its comments and its further engagement with EPA on the proposed definition about potential exclusions for permafrost from the definition of waters of the United States and to restore states' primary role over water pollution. EPA is considering all of this very helpful input, and we will take action on a new definition this year.

I also want to highlight a new initiative that we've recently launched to address the backlog of contaminated sites across the country. We're calling the initiative Superfund Solutions, and the goal is to expedite each step of the remedy selection and site remediation process at sites across the country. Through this long-term initiative, we will roll out key gold standard science investments to cut red tape, make swifter cleanup decisions, use modern tools, and increase cooperative federalism to deliver maximum results for human health and the environment. We've made huge strides on contaminated sites already this year. We've completed more than 290 site cleanups.

We've selected 30 cleanup remedies, and we've updated 59 other cleanup plans across the country. We've removed over 59 million cubic yards of contaminated soil and water. We've recovered over $864 million from responsible parties to assist in cleaning up sites. And we've shaved off multiple years from cleanup projects across the country. We're eager to build on this success through the new initiative by enhancing project management, deploying tools and authorities earlier in the process, and applying smarter science to achieve smarter outcomes.

All of this builds towards the goal of getting more contaminated sites back into productive reuse in the communities in which they serve. And finally, I want to give a quick update to everyone today who relies on trucking to move their products through Alaska. Administrator Zeldin and I have both heard directly about the hardships that diesel exhaust fluid and SCR systems can cause, that they are bringing to truckers across America as well as farmers. In Alaska, we've heard about how extreme cold adds another layer of headache onto the multiple headaches that sudden shutdowns from these DEF systems and these system failures are already causing. Over the last year, we've been working to expeditiously fix these issues for American farmers and truckers once and for all.

Right now, we're working hard to develop a new rule that will seek to remove deratements for new vehicles and engines completely in a legally and technically durable way. The action will build on our steps that we've taken last year to significantly reduce and diverse deratements caused by malfunctioning equipment, among the many other steps we've taken to address these issues. I expect Alaskan truckers will be pleased with this proposed approach once it's released, and I encourage each of you to submit public comments during the upcoming comment period. As you can see, we've been hard at work at EPA over the first year and a half of President Trump's second term. But these actions are just a piece of the important work that we've done to protect human health and the environment while growing our economy.

And we've accomplished all of these goals while simultaneously reducing the agency's workforce by about 25%, ensuring that we have not one more, but also not one fewer employee that we need to carry out our core mission and our statutory responsibilities. We've reorganized and we've optimized the agency in critical ways. We've created a new Office of State Air Partnerships to work directly with states on Clean Air Act compliance. We've reassigned hundreds of scientists directly into our land, water, air, and chemicals offices so that their work can directly support our statutory and regulatory obligations. And we've launched a new science office directly within the Office of the Administrator with over 500 scientists supporting all of the agency's critical work and researching to find tomorrow's solutions to today's environmental challenges.

And finally, instead of weaponizing enforcement, we've refocused our approach on a achieving compliance quickly, because compliance with common-sense requirements is how we achieve the environmental outcomes that we're all seeking. So in short, we're 100% committed to moving forward with common-sense approaches that work for everyone, while remaining dedicated to the rule of law and being good stewards of Americans' hard-earned taxpayer dollars. So with that, thank you again for the generous invitation. To have me with you today, and I appreciate the time. And thank you for all that you do for Alaska and for the country.

Thank you, Deputy Administrator, for that presentation. We continue to value EPA as an essential partner in promoting responsible resource development across Alaska. Let's hear one more big round of applause for the Deputy Administrator and his team.

Now, in continuing with our theme, how do we do it best in Alaska? I'd like to bring up our panelists for the fireside chat that'll talk about how industry works with, with the administration to help advance resource development in Alaska. And our distinguished panelists are right over here. First off, our leader will be Eric Felstad. Come on up, Eric.

Eric, worked in the timber industry in Southeast and mineral industry and has a wealth of background in all industries. He'll be leading our fireside chat. Nicole Kimbrell with the PSPA is coming up. Nicole will talk about the fishing industry. We've got Renee Reeve with CLIA representing the visitor industry and our cruise ship partners in Southeast and here in South Central.

Denali Campbell, thank you Denali for joining us. Denali is going to represent the energy sector and the great work he'll work corp does here in the state of Alaska. So with that, one more round of applause for our panelists, and Eric, it's yours.

Thank you, Scott, and the past speakers. We're going to get right underway in the interest of moving this along. So we're going to start. We have a series of questions. I would say the theme is, call it, opportunities and challenges..

We have questions around that. I'm going to start with Nicole Kimball, Vice President with Pacific Seafood Processors Association. Nicole, environmental challenges and stewardship for your industry, can you address that? What are the opportunities and challenges you see? Thanks, and thanks for having me.

For challenges, every time I'm up here on the stage with other Resource Industries. Thanks to RDC for the opportunity to do that. Um, I always feel like we have so much more in common than we do differences. And for us, really what's unique— not unique among our industries, but unique compared to other food producers, which is what we are in Alaska, seafood producers— is just the level of remoteness of our operations. That is likely our biggest challenge.

All operations become more challenging in communities that are off the road system, that are not fully supported with all the infrastructure that you would expect, with very limited transportation access. Everything is not at your fingertips, and costs are obviously a lot higher. So cost of operations in remote communities and cost of energy is probably our biggest challenge. And that is the situation for most seafood processors. I think most people don't get to view them.

They're not sitting here in Anchorage unless you go down to Copper River Seafood foods in the port, but if you can ever get out to other places in Alaska, that's where seafood processors live. In terms of opportunities, you know, we've taken a lot of opportunities in terms of energy efficiency. I think if you get out to the Aleutian Islands, you can see a seafood processor there that has really made great strides. And all, all processors are trying to do this in terms of taking more seafood waste— that's the majority of what we produce in terms of waste and would be eaten EPA permitting, DEC permitting. It's fish waste.

So what do you do with all of that waste? So there's great opportunities in, in Alaska, for one example, of using that fish waste and turning it into a subsidized fuel. So you can combine that fish waste, turn it into fish oil, combine it with diesel, which is what most fish plants run on, and then use that to generate clean electricity. So there's a Good opportunity to use byproducts from fish in order to have cleaner, more energy-efficient operations, and people make huge investments in very remote areas in order to do that. I think our other big opportunity, um, and our Alaska legislature has been a big supporter of this, is again using byproducts of fish in order to make more products.

So the big thing for seafood processors is trying to retain more secondary processing in the state of Alaska. Trying to make more, more value-added products in the state of Alaska and using more of each fish. So if you're not getting more fish into your community, you can at least get more products out of the same number of fish. And so using all the other things to create things that you wouldn't think of, like fish meal, fish oil, fertilizer, anything in the pharmaceutical industry, pet food, all the things that would normally be in fish waste that you might then have to have under your wastewater permit. Turning that into a product that's saleable out of Alaska.

So we have a lot of great opportunity to use more of each fish that we get into Alaska, and I'm not just talking about salmon— salmon, cod, pollock, all sorts of different opportunity with the diversity of species we have. I really appreciated our keynote speaker recognizing that we are the seafood— top seafood state in the nation. We do produce more than 60% of the US seafood in the nation. I hope all RDC members can remember that. And we do produce 5 to 6 billion pounds of fish harvested off Alaska that's brought to seafood processors across Alaska that make 2 to 3 billion pounds of product.

So there's a lot of opportunity with that level of volume and diversity, and we just need to be able to take advantage of it. All right.

Thank you, Nicole. I'm going to move on next to the oil and gas sector. Our Our panelist here is Denali Kemple, Vice President with Hilcorp Alaska. So same question, same sort of theme, I would say environmental challenges and other challenges for your industry, examples of stewardship, things where you feel you have a tailwind, things where you may have a headwind. What's on your mind?

So first of all, thanks to RDC for hosting this lunch today. So happy so many Hilcorp employees could be here today, including our environmental team members, to hear directly from the Deputy Administrator and our congressional delegation. You know, the theme of today is what makes Alaska unique, you know, what's special about Alaska, and a couple of things— they're not necessarily always glamorous things, but a couple of tangible examples. Secondary containment, you see it all over the North Slope. It's not fancy, but it works, and really the goal is to make sure that oil and gas never hits the tundra.

Alaska is such a highly regulated operating environment, and yet we have decades and decades of really successful production and development. And I think sometimes it's the small things that the oil and gas operators do, secondary containment being just one of them, preventing things before they happen, having really strong integrity teams, corrosion monitoring, TARS, where we do preventative maintenance and make sure that things don't become problems. And then also innovation. You know, at Prudhoe, we're using propane to power our truck fleet. We're looking at propane for powering our drill rigs.

So we're looking at new ways of thinking to kind of reduce a footprint, but still making sure we're really successful in production. In terms of opportunities and challenges, you know, I think that there is incredible opportunities out there just for existing production, but also new production as we look west for Project Taiga, at Prudhoe, Alaska Oil and Gas, Alaska LNG. You know, I think we've seen that with domestic— with global events, domestic supply is really, really important. We can provide security of supply, we can provide safe supply, and we can do it really well. And so I think Alaska remains really premier on the map to do that.

I mean, maybe just to highlight two quick challenges, as I know we're short on time. One is, you know, maintaining regulatory certainty, having federal and state certainty, keeping the rules the same, safe and predictable, so operators can plan around that. And then I think the second challenge is really around workforce, making sure we have the next generation of operators, scientists, regulators, you know, people to go and work, contractors, people to go and work in the oil field.

Thank you, Denali. Appreciate those comments. So next we're going to move on to tourism with Renee Reeve, who is Vice President for Governmental Affairs for the Cruise Lines International Association in Alaska. So same sort of question, things that are unique to your industry, maybe some stewardship examples if there are things along those lines, opportunities, challenges, things that are on your mind. Yeah, absolutely.

And again, thank you to RDC, Connor, and Jennifer for the invitation to be here. You know, I think to set the stage, really understanding the vastness of the industry— for those of us who are here in Anchorage, you don't feel it as much, but, you know, we do bring over 90% of the cruise passengers are on our ships, our CLIA member line ships. And that's about 60% of summer visitation. You know, we have 20 member cruise lines functioning here. We brought 1.77 million visitors on cruise ships to Alaska last year.

We expect similar numbers for this year. And we're fifth in the— we are fifth in the top 10 world cruise destinations. I mean, think about that. The world, and we're number 5, and about 5% of that global market. So that sort of sets the stage for where we get in trouble with these, with the misinformation out there about us.

One of the things I hear all the time, and it would be laughable except it's believed, is that we're not regulated. We are regulated by the International Maritime Organization. We are regulated by our friends at the EPA, the CDC, the FMC, and our friends at DEC. And we take our environmental commitment very, very strongly. We're committed to working with those partners and regulators because it's the right thing to do. It's the way the world is moving.

Our guests are demanding environmental policies that are safe, and we really believe that we're at the forefront of them. When it comes to commitment, we're putting our money where our mouth is. We are building ships right now that are built with dual, and last year we had our first try fuel engine delivered. We are building for the fuels of the future, but we don't know what they are, and they're not available at scale. So we are, we are, we know those ships will be sailing the ocean for the next 30 to 40 years, and we're prepared to be for those ships to be moving that forward.

Um, you know, in the meantime, we welcomed our first LNG ship to Alaska this year, the Star Princess, and that's a ship, the LNG ship are the ones that we're looking at as the transition, right, from traditional fuels into biofuels. So we're really excited about that. And fun fact, if you've ever heard me speak, I always talk about it, but this is the 25th anniversary of ShorePower in Juneau, Alaska. We were the first in the world to install ShorePower. Juneau, Alaska.

That's something we should be proud of. And I think it demonstrates that as a region, because number 2 was Seattle and number 3 was Vancouver, as a region, we are really embracing moving forward and that environmental commitment. You know, I think we have, we are using things like exhaust gas cleaning systems, right? These technologies were based on land and studied for decades before they were ever put on our ship. But our problem is that everyone, every industry up here knows that when industry presents science, it's not believed.

And we have to change that narrative because science is science. You know, we want a successful economy. We are—. The industries on this stage are moving our state forward, and it doesn't behoove us in any way to fudge the numbers or to skirt the rules. Right now, we're so happy to have a federal government that knows that industry science is real, and, you know, I implore elected officials who, you know, probably aren't in the room right now, but I implore them really not to squander this opportunity.

Not to do anything that's going to hamper our continued success. You know, we're here and we want to engage with people. And when it comes to opportunity, it's endless. You know, the demand to cruise is not going away. People want to cruise.

You heard we are the top— you know, we're in the top 10 destinations worldwide. Tourism overall, it's the number one job and wage provider in Southeast Alaska right now, full stop. So how do we embrace that? You know, we're really happy to have partners in the Native corporations coming to us and saying, how do we get involved? What does that look like?

Christina Wilson with Old Harbor, you know, we've been talking with her for about a year now. And HX, one of our member lines, will bring the first cruise ship to Old Harbor this August. That's really exciting. There's a lot to be excited about. So I think what we need to be doing is growing the pie.

You know, the demand isn't going to go away. Maybe that doesn't mean more visitors, but how do we bring visitors to different places like Old Harbor, like some of the other Native corporations that we're talking to who are interested in expanding into tourism? The opportunity is there, so let's continue to move forward together.

Thank you, Renee. So I go last. My name again is Eric Felsen. I'm a partner at Perkins Coie. I'm a lawyer.

I focus on natural resource projects in particular and do a lot of work for the mining sector. So I drew the short straw in talking about the mining sector. So here we go. I'm going to focus first on what is Alaska, you know, why should we care about it for mining. I would say the thing that stands out for me is it's proven.

It is richly endowed with resources. The way companies, people coming from other countries come here, they view this like a country. It's not a state. It's that big. It's that resource rich.

The proven part matters. We have 7 hard rock mines that are operating, and Usibelli has been doing great things with coal for many, many, many decades. That matters because there is a path to actually bring these things into production. Sometimes you really don't have that, but we've got the infrastructure around a lot of these things. We have the regulatory infrastructure, the people, The people, the governmental agencies, the support industries, all of that.

So the proven part is huge. So very richly endowed. You know, moving on to the other things I think that are hugely relevant here, obviously people and policies. The people part is fantastic. We've heard some remarks from EPA.

It's at the state level as well. I would say the way I view this is It starts at the very top, and it's very clear at the top of the federal administration that Alaska matters, that minerals matter. And it's a difference. It's a mindset between really believing in something versus sort of just walking through, going through the motions. Exact same thing at the state.

We have fantastic leadership at the top. And you look across the resource agencies—DNR, DEC, and Fish and Game—great leadership. And so that flows down. We're lucky to have an Alaskan, I think she's in the room here, Emma Pocan, former DEC commissioner is now in charge of EPA regional adminis— she is the regional administrator for EPA. That's huge.

People that understand Alaska. So moving on to the policies. The policies are huge, hugely, hugely significant. We heard about some of those on the early remarks. I guess the way I view it as a runner is it's It's like running a marathon.

It's always hard. There's no easy marathon. But it's the difference between having a tailwind that's a slight benefit versus a stiff headwind. We had a stiff headwind, if not a hurricane, for the last few years. And now we've got a tailwind.

It's still super hard to bring minerals into production, but it's better. But that point brings out— and then moving on, think about this in terms of opportunities and The challenges— on the challenges side, so what are the challenges? Mines are different than anything. They're really unique. The lead time is minimum 10 years.

10 Years would almost be in the Guinness Book if you could— from first exploration to mine. I don't know if you can even do it that fast. 10 To 20 years is sort of the timeframe. So by definition, that's going to go over multiple federal administrations. So what's the greatest risk?

Political risk. Political risk. So when folks come here from other countries sometimes, what I hear is they say, "Geez, what you guys do here, we call that nationalization." That occasionally happens where the rule book gets so thick and deep that you effectively have a no or an actual no. And it's hard to distinguish that from just nationalizing an asset. So political risk is significant.

That's extreme, what I just outlined, but what happens all the time is the seesaw goes back and forth. And we just heard about a lot of good commentary about trying to reverse some of the things that have been undone. But what's unique again about mines is it takes a long time. So if you're looking 15, 20 years, you're likely going to go through 2 or 3 different federal administrations. That makes it super hard.

I would say another issue on the— not the risk front, but maybe it's an opportunity cost. It's really unique to the people side on the state. Super great leadership at the top, lot of energetic young people trying to get into the business. But at the state side, when I think of the agencies, where are we lacking? I call it the middle and senior managers.

Some of these people are in the room, and they're retired. And unfortunately, you see less and less people that go to DNR, to come into the DEC fishing game and make a career of it. We have to fix that. It's hard issues. These are divisive issues.

They're being addressed in Juneau right now, but it gets down to compensation and benefits. But these people matter. The projects in Alaska are not small. Almost by definition, they're national class, if not globally significant. They're hard.

It takes really capable people, not just the project but the people at the agencies to get these over the line. We need these middle and senior managers. They play an important mentoring role. They're proven. They've figured out how to deal with issues.

They've got credibility with the public, which is also key. So I would encourage those that are involved in this debate, those that are in Juneau, to continue to dig in. We have to figure out how to make working for state government competitive. So I'll close it with that. The mineral industries, it's great times.

It's hard to find help. It's hard to find services, which is a nice problem to have. So I want to thank my panelists. This has been fun. Thank Connor and Scott and everyone for running this thing.

And we'll move on to Senator Murkowski here.

It's great to see how some of our issues are the same and how we're working together to make sure we, we advance our projects. And this is, this is where we're going to punt. We're going to see how good our IT team is. Senator Murkowski is running a little late and she wanted to give a live presentation. So we're going to go to Senator Sullivan, has some prerecorded words.

Can you guys help us get Senator Sullivan up? And then hello, RDC, and greetings from Washington, D.C. I'm in my office here in D.C. With this little Kodiak brown bear friend of mine. But hey, I wanted to thank you first of all for all that you do for our state, for our economy.

Scott, thank you for your presidency here, all the great work that Alaska Airlines does. I know we are greeting Mr. David Fatui, our Deputy EPA Administrator. I think the EPA is doing a great job. So welcome, Mr. Administrator, to Alaska.

And you're with a great group. And I really, truly mean it. You guys are the guys who take risks, the men and women who take risks. You guys are the men and women who build our economy, who employ people. And look, these aren't just jobs.

When you have a good job, that's the best government program there could be, right? A good private sector job where you bring pride to your family, pride to communities. So thank you. All of you for the great work that you are doing. Now, I like to say we're in the middle of what I call the Alaska comeback.

We got challenges, there's no doubt. But, you know, the one question is, well, heck, Dan, if we're in the comeback, what are we coming back from? Well, you know, you've seen this. This was the last frontier lockup. The 70 executive orders that the Biden administration put on our economy hurt thousands of jobs.

Not good. We also have the Schumer shutdown. That was the Majority Leader Chuck Schumer when he was in charge here. He's got a long history of trying to shut down our state. But we're coming back from that, and it is exciting.

Because here's what's happening. Because of you guys and some of the policies that we're getting over the goal line here in D.C., we are working on things that we've been trying to get done for decades, and it's exciting. But let me do a shout-out to a part of our economy. All of you guys play a critical role, but But now that it's summer, and now that, you know, I fly home every weekend, and I get in the airports, and my goodness, they are busy. So to our tourism sector, man, you guys are such a pillar of the economy.

You are such an important diversification source for our economy. And I just can't thank you enough. I remember, you know, 6 years ago when we went through that really, really, really scary time with COVID and how that hurt our tourism sector. We all worked together, we got through it, and, you know, you're continuing to take off. So to everybody in the tourism sector, thank you.

You're the great ambassadors for our state. And I see it every day how that's driving the economy. So the other things that are exciting, you know, I've done about well over now 70 community town halls engagements on what we passed almost a year ago, the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. That is a great bill for our state. As a matter of fact, I refer to it as the Alaska Opportunity Act because there's because there's so much good stuff in it for our state.

You know, Democrats and Republicans, we don't always agree on stuff back here. We usually do on most things. But one area where there's agreement, and my Senate colleagues on either side of the aisle, is no state did better than the great state of Alaska with regard to the Working Families Tax Cuts Act. So I've been presenting to folks all over our great state saying, hey, here's what's in it. Let's work together to take advantage of these opportunities.

Resource development, historic on ANWR, on NPRA, on Cook Inlet. Giant investments in the Coast Guard, the biggest investments in Coast Guard history, $25 billion to recapitalize our Coast Guard. A huge investment in aviation safety for the country, but no state is doing better than Alaska on aviation safety. A giant investment in Alaskan healthcare, the biggest investment from the federal government ever, $1.4 $1.4 billion to bring healthcare closer to home. $1.4 Billion from the feds to Alaska to design our own healthcare system, to make it more efficient and bring that healthcare closer to all of us.

Securing the border. Yes, that's absolutely critical. And of course, the tax breaks that are for businesses, but most importantly for working families. The average family of four in America because of this bill is going to see savings of up to $7,500 to $11,000. This is fantastic on keeping more money in our pockets as Alaskans, as Americans.

So this is just a few of the things that were in that bill. So what's happening with regard to resource development, what all of you guys do on a daily basis? You know, we have a huge comeback on the North Slope. I was just up there again with Secretary Bergman, the Secretary of Interior. He's also the chairman of the White House Energy Dominance Council.

We were at PICA for First Oil. Boy, thank you everybody there, Santos and others. 80,000 Barrels a day. It was so exciting to see that. That's going straight into taps.

We were at Willow and it was amazing to see Willow. I was there a year ago. It was essentially gravel pad. Now it's like a small to medium-sized city. The Alaskan workforce that And building trades have done such a great job of building that incredibly important project.

That's going to be peak production, about 180,000 barrels a day. So we are looking at— finally, we're doing it. We're reversing the TAPS decline, which again is so important for our state, so important for our economy, so important for jobs. But to be perfectly honest, so important for America. And, you know, an issue I work on, my team and I work on every single day.

I know there's naysayers out there, but I— We've never been closer on the gas line. Think about what that will do. And hopefully by the time you see this, maybe our legislature is going to be closer to getting that tax deal done. But we've been working on that night and day for years. Think about what that project will do if we could get low-cost energy to Alaskans, to our military.

That's the primary goal. To our allies in Asia. That is an opportunity. 50 To 100 years of low-cost Alaskan energy, we could have a manufacturing sector, we can do anything. It's really, really exciting.

I think this is the next TAPS generation that are looking at building that out. And we've never been closer. We've never been closer. Are we there yet? No, we're not there yet.

But we've never been closer. And we all got to pull on the same oar, all of us, to make sure that gets over the goal line. But I'll tell you this, that is super exciting how close we are on that. And then something else that matters for our national security, security, but we have a historic military buildup that's going on. It's something I've been focused on for years, and it is really accelerating.

Uh, you may have seen the Air Force announce in their budget a $7 billion investment right here at JBear, uh, in Anchorage. $7 Billion. That's going to be estimated 29 new buildings, 4,000 new private sector jobs. Uh, that is super exciting. We just passed the National Defense Authorization Act.

That's going to be public tomorrow. Just for this year, we're going to have a $2.7 billion military construction just for Alaska. I mean, that's off the charts in terms of the excitement going on here. Even my beloved Marine Corps is now doing more in Alaska. We got the KC-135 tankers now coming to Fairbanks.

So many things that are going on in terms of our military. But the one that I will tell you I'm most proud of as the chairman of the Coast Guard Subcommittee Committee. You may have seen the announcements last week with the Commandant of the Coast Guard, the Secretary of Homeland Security, my good friend Mark Wayne Mullen. They announced 4 icebreakers being homeported in our state. 4.

Think about it, last year at this time we had zero. As a matter of fact, we are the state with the ice and we've never had an icebreaker. Not very smart of our federal government. That's changing. You know, we've had the one in Juneau, uh, and the $300 million in the Working Families Tax Cuts Act that we got in there.

We got this giant recapitalization of the Coast Guard with up to 15 new icebreakers. And now last week the Coast Guard said 2 more going to Kodiak and an icebreaker going to Seward. Seward, with the new fast response cutter, is going to become another great Alaska Coast Guard town. So, so exciting on that. So look, you can tell I'm enthusiastic about everything that's happening.

All of this is going to be more jobs, good-paying jobs, more money in the pockets of Alaskans, and none of it None of it would happen without all of you guys, with all the hard work that you are putting into our economy, on employing our fellow Alaskans. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Have a great luncheon today.

But I really just want to thank all of you guys for your tremendous hard work. And I think the future is bright with all of us working together.

You got to love how the senator brings the energy each and every day. That was a great presentation. And I'm going to spare you something. We are doing a little tap dancing as we're waiting for the senior senator. And I won't—.

I'm here, I'm here. Sing.

Is she on? Yeah, she is. She's right there. Yeah, yeah. I'm like, I'm here, I'm here.

Okay, well, you are so important. We were going to hold the plane for you. But you made it on time, so thank you. No, you know I don't, I don't pull that card, Scott. I don't do that.

I try to be there on time, but yeah, I couldn't beam into your Zoom here. Sorry. Appreciate you, and the floor is yours. We're excited to hear about all the great things that you're doing for us in DC. Well, thank you.

I'm excited to applaud and acknowledge all the great things that you all are doing for us there in Alaska. I want to appreciate RDC for everything that you you do, your focus. You got great board members, got a new board president, Joe Balash, you go, Joe. And to have the Deputy Administrator Foti-Hay traveling to the state is also appreciated. So we are in the thick of appropriations here, and as the chair of the Appropriations Panel that sets the EPA budget every year, I appreciate that you've got the Deputy Administrator there.

We've been working together on some really good projects, everything from bulk fuel storage to Fairbanks air quality, cleanup of federally contaminated lands. I will tell you, we've come a long way with the EPA since the days when we had armed EPA agents airdropping into chickens. So, relationships have improved dramatically and we're appreciative of that.

And thankful for an administration that is really working with us on so many of Alaska's priorities. We're not being treated like the snow globe on the shelf. We are really in the center of things, and I think key to so much of the strategy that is out there. It's so great. I mean, you all know, but it's so great to be talking to an administration that wants to partner with us to refill TAPS, to build AK LNG, The effort on critical minerals moving forward with recognizing the flaws in the roadless rule, recognizing that the no more clause in ANILCA actually means just that.

So I know you've heard from Nick, and I know you just heard from Dan. I'm not going to repeat a lot of what the two of them have said, but there is a lot of excitement. There is a lot of energy. You think about Pikaa online, Willow on the way, the record-setting lease sale up in the Petroleum Reserve, Ambler moving forward, Graphite One, Terra Energy, King Cove— excited about King Cove— and of course it's tourism season and fishery season as well. So resources in Alaska are hot and heavy.

And I think I just want to leave you with 4 quick points here today that are perhaps less project-specific The first one is that Alaska's renaissance is really real. We know we've had some tough years, but there is some real momentum under the Midnight Sun right now, and we're seeing good projects that are creating good jobs for Alaskans. They're, they're, they're going to help diversify our economy. And given all that's going on, that's just a really good feel. Number 2, though, The window isn't open forever, and I hate to, I hate to go from high to just kind of the tempering with realism, but we know that the pendulum always swings, so we've got to do everything that we can to complete favorable rulemakings, to get the federal permits that we need, to beat back the inevitable lawsuits that come our way, and really get things moving into construction.

So I think our focus for the next couple years needs to be to to be turning dirt and getting projects to the place where they are, they're real and they're going to move forward. Third thing is working together. This is, we talk about the Alaska delegation here being small but mighty. We have one big team, Alaska, and I think we need to remember that because we're in the midst of an election year. Thankfully, I'm not in the midst of that, but my colleagues are, you've got everybody running for governor and you inevitably have forces that try to divide us.

Candidates are in a situation where they're pitted against one another, industries are pitted against one another, but we really, we've got to stay focused on the things that bring us together because there's plenty that's going to divide us. So when we're talking about bycatch or timber or any number of issues that are out there, at the end of the day, folks, we got to remember we are all Alaskans. We understand our resources and how we're working together really matters. The right answers aren't always readily apparent, but we've got to be focused on work together and working in our state's best interest. And then the final point, and this is one that I don't think we make often enough, and that is We don't just have a right to produce Alaska's resources.

We fundamentally, we are fundamentally right to produce them. We just are. And, and in fairness, nobody does it better. We've got the highest standards, we've got the best operators. And I think the world is better off when, when Alaska is producing.

And if you don't believe that, just look, look at, at Asia. Asia needs our LNG. Look at California. Which California is a really interesting example because they have become far more dependent on foreign oil as Alaska's production has declined. And so where do they go?

They're buying from Russia. They were buying from Russia. They bought from the Middle East, from places like Ecuador instead of us. That didn't turn out so well. They've funded autocrats.

They've funded war machines. They've contributed to the deforestation of the Amazon. And quite honestly, they're paying a lot more now because so much of their oil comes through the States— Straits of Hormuz, rather than from Valdez. And so, just one kind of small example that reminds folks that the world needs Alaska, they need us, they need our resources, our minerals, our gas, our fish. And so, while we're working together to realize all of these opportunities, remember we're stronger when we're together, and every industry needs to be proud of what they bring to this family table.

Know that the delegation is here to work with all of you as we move forward. I am deeply appreciative of what you all do to make our State as great as we possibly can be every day. So I'm going to be back home as often as I can. So tell that Alaska Airlines jet to just wait, wait 2 more minutes while I race down the jetway to come home and be, be with all those of you that I love. So thank you so much.

Thank you, Senator. Thank you very much.

And we will always leave the door open for you because you're always working for Alaska. Your passion for the state is truly appreciated by everybody in this room and everybody across the state. So Lisa, thank you very much. And with that, my portion of the remarks is done. I'm going to turn this over to Connor to bring us home, but don't leave.

He's got exciting stuff, including somebody's going to win 2 tickets to ADAC or wherever else we fly.

All right, thank you, Scott. And yes, I will keep this short. Also need to do a disclaimer. I kind of thought I could get away with this. I did speed up Senator Sullivan a little bit.

You guys may have noticed that, so I apologize. I wanted his message out there, but I am dealing with a clock. So anyway, anyone who thinks he's a little hopped up on caffeine, that's on me. But he is my old boss. I used to work for him, and he He's a great senator and we're very lucky to have him there.

So I will eat that crow right now.

But yeah, I just started as the executive director here in January of this year and been really impressed with the warm welcome that our membership has given me. I've really got kind of 3 goals for this organization, which is to strengthen RDC's influence, expand our reach, and deliver meaningful value to our members and improve on that value. So as much as you all can tell me how to do that best, I'm going to come up with my own way, but I want to hear from you all. You're our members. You're really the identity of this organization.

So really, as we heard today, there's so many opportunities in the state, and this is, you know, there's a strong need for a credible and statewide voice for responsible resource development. I think now more than ever, and I want RDC to be that. Also wanted to give a shout out to our board of directors. They really are the smartest and hardest working people that I've worked with, and I get to work with 78 and I get to juggle them. But it is cool to have just that amount of intelligence and hard work in one room.

We get a lot done together. So Finally, I want to give a thank you to Jennifer. I know we've already given her a shout-out. I also have an announcement that we are bringing on a new external affairs coordinator, Lauren Rice, who is in the crowd somewhere. But if you see her, and thank you.

Excited to have her on. She's worked in the legislature, State of Alaska, Covenant House, and Alaska Center for Performing Arts, so she's going to do a great job expanding RDC's voice. Once again, thank you to all the sponsors. I'm going to do a slight plug. I know the House just passed an Alaska LNG bill.

We're happy to see that, 87% bipartisan. RDC is very supportive of the project in general, and we want a clean bill. There's been a number of opportunities to our actions to try and put some oil taxation onto that bill that we are, we are certainly opposed to. So if you get a chance, their deadline is this, this Friday, I think. So make sure you, you make your voice heard with your legislator.

With that, I will tell you, mark your calendars. November 11th and 12th is our fall conference, and I am gonna end with a fun thing with this raffle. So let's— oh, you are. Okay. We've got a number.

Oh, good. We have an impartial ticket. So, okay.

1200161. Do we have a winner? Yes.

All right, we're ending on that high note. With that, it concludes our 51st Annual Luncheon. Thank you all for coming and have a wonderful day.