Hello everyone, I am Lisa Murkowski and I am here to request that you

reconsider your opinion on Bill 2-2015 AKA the Hold it All In Act. This bill is
proposing that we cut all leases oil and coal on federal land and offshore sites, this
bill simply will not work in its current state. Although Section 3 gives us our needed
reform, the cutting of the oil leases on federal lands greatly hinders our energy
production and our society as a whole.
Even though this Bill needs to be amended significantly before I will even
consider passing it, there still are some good qualities within it that I highly support.
First of all, I completely agree that we should seal all current wells that are leaking
natural gas and I agree that we should plug all abandoned or non-producing wells as
mentioned in Section 3. In 2014, the methane emissions levels were over 1,800 parts
per million some of which has come from human contribution, however, by plugging
and sealing leaks in all the wells, we will greatly reduce the amount of natural gas
that is leaked into the atmosphere therefore, creating a healthier environment to live
in. This section of the bill is fine, Section 1 on the other hand needs to be heavily
modified.
In Section 1, lines 31 to 39 it is proposing that we cut off our main source of energy by
stopping all oil and gas leases on federal land. Oil, Coal, and natural gas accounts for
about 82% of our energy. Without our main source of energy we will have to become
reliant on other forms of energy such as windmills, solar panels, nuclear, and
hydroelectric which when combined only make up about 18% of our energy
production. Also, by cutting off all leases on federal land we are missing great
opportunities within our own country. An excellent example of this is within Alaska.
Alaska has 222 million acres of federal land that is prosperous in oil and by cutting off
the ability to gather the oil from these sites, we are cutting the amount of oil that is
produced in the US, thus limiting our abilities to become domestically independent. In
the 1980s Alaska reached its peak by producing a quarter of the oil extracted in the
US, but these numbers have been decreasing over the years due to current well sites
drying out and the inability to gain the permission to drill on federal land. This is just
one state out of 50 that we would be able to gather even more oil from for our own
needs. So instead of cutting off all leases on federal land, I propose that we amend
Section 1 to limit the number of leases for oil and coal productions on federal land.
This will be done by placing a cap of how many leases are allowed in each state. The
cap will be placed at 50% of the current leases in each state that we will gradually
move towards within the next 100 years.
We as a whole need to think about what is best for our society. Yes, we need to
reduce the amount of emissions that are released into our atmosphere, but at the
same time we need to maintain our ability to supply energy to all of our citizens.
Lets do what is best for our society as a whole, not just a few.