Daily Sitka Sentinel

Sullivan: Keystone No Threat to Alaska

By TOM HESSE
Sentinel Staff Writer
    After a little more than a month in office, U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan stopped Friday in Sitka, where he spoke about bipartisanship in the new Congress, his committee assignments and the priorities of the Senate with its new Republican majority.

 Sen. Dan Sullivan speaks at a Sitka Chamber of Commerce luncheon. (Sentinel Photo)

  Sullivan was in Ketchikan and Juneau as well as Sitka during the current Congressional recess. He spoke here at a special noon meeting of the Chamber of Commerce and later at the Republican Lincoln Day Dinner.
    At the Chamber luncheon Sullivan addressed a number of topics including the Keystone XL oil pipeline, which was also was the subject of his first speech on the Senate floor. He called the pipeline, which will ship tar sands from Canada down to refineries in Texas, “important for our country and important for Alaska.”
    Speaking with reporters after the luncheon, he said Alaskans don’t need to be worried that increased production of Canadian oil will negatively affect oil investments in Alaska.
    “Absolutely not,” he said. “First of all, Keystone is part of broader North American infrastructure. Keystone also takes American produced oil, for example in the Bakken, and moves it. Keystone moving oil via pipeline is the most environmentally responsible way to do it. If there’s one place in the world that proves that it’s the state of Alaska.”
    The Bakken Shale is located in North Dakota.
    Sullivan also said that more oil moving through Keystone will not drive down already depressed prices paid to Alaskan producers.
    “No. Oil prices are set by the global market. I don’t think we ever view Canada as a competition to Alaska. The problem, the biggest challenge we have right now, is an administration with President Obama who is very focused on removing opportunities to responsibly develop our resources, our oil and gas land potential in Alaska.”
    Obama has previously stated that he will veto the Keystone XL pipeline bill, which has already cleared the Senate and House of Representatives. Sullivan said the bill won’t benefit Alaskans directly, but he added the broad support may lead to support for Alaskan energy projects ahead.
    “Well, look, I mean every bill that you vote on in a United States Senate is not going to have a direct impact on Alaska constituents. What we’re trying to do is build a coalition of senators – we had 64 senators vote for Keystone – build a coalition of senators who are pro responsible resource development,” he said. “And in that regard, this debate on Keystone has actually been critical. We’re going to educate a lot of the members of the Senate to recognize that Alaska plays a critical role for energy security for the country and we’ve started that debate.”
    Bipartisanship was a major theme for Sullivan during his Chamber presentation. Sullivan was one of many Republicans elected in November who swung the Senate to Republican control.
    “The Senate is working again,” he said.
    As an example he pointed to the January roll call vote numbers compared to last year’s numbers. 
    “Last year in 2014, there was 14 of those in the entire year. So we went from 14 in a year to 42 in a month.”
    Foreign Policy
    That bipartisanship will be key as the Senate discusses a request from  Obama to use military force against the terrorist group known as ISIS. Sullivan has a seat on the armed services committee and himself has extensive military and counter-terrorism backgrounds. He’s currently a lieutenant colonel in the Marine Corps Reserves and during the Bush Administration he worked under Condoleezza Rice on terrorist financing.
    “Right before we left for recess the President put forward something, which I think is going to be quite important, authorization for the use of military force,” Sullivan said. “He recognizes that we have new threats out there. In my view, and I’ve been asked about it, I think it’s very important that on these kinds of issues Congress and the executive branch try to work together. We’re clearly stronger as a country when we do so. There’s no more important issue, in my view, that a member of Congress can take on than looking at the national security of our country and possibly when to send young men and women to go fight for our country.”
    Sullivan didn’t offer up a specific strategy for combatting ISIS, but did express “frustration” with the Obama Administration for not putting forward a strategy. He did explain that the military does not need to be the only answer to foreign threats.
    “That’s an important component of our national power, certainly. But, we need to be strong as a country with regard to our economy. We need to be strong as a country with regard to finance and cutting off terrorist finance,” he said.
    Sullivan said one of the prevailing thoughts in committee hearings is that projects like the Keystone pipeline will make America more energy independent, which will be a “new American power” for combating terrorism.
    “In many of these meetings, and again, very bipartisan, there’s a lot of agreement that this is a great new instrument of American power that we can use strategically to help keep us safe.”
    Medicaid Expansion
    One of the top campaign pledges Sullivan made last fall was that he would lead the effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare.
    Sullivan was attorney general when Alaska joined other states that sued to overturn the new health care law. But now Alaska Gov. Bill Walker is embracing one of the key components of the law, the expansion of Medicaid in Alaska. Asked if he saw a conflict between the attitudes of the two statewide elected officials, Sullivan said he did not. 
    “Well, you’re looking at two different laws here. I’m talking about Obamacare as a law. You’re talking about Medicaid expansion. And although they were connected in the Obamacare legislation, those are in many ways very distinct issues, right? So, the governor’s going to make his choice. All different governors are going to make their choice.”
    Medicaid expansion, which eventually would be paid for in part by the states, was in fact part of the Affordable Care Act from the outset. Ruling on the lawsuit to invalidate the act, the Supreme Court upheld the act but said states could choose whether or not they wanted to expand Medicaid. Sullivan said he’s happy to have given states that choice.
    “Like I said, the role I was proud to play was to give governors the choice to make that choice. Now we have it in Alaska,” he said.
    Asked by reporters if he would support changes to the law rather than a full “repeal and replace” Sullivan said the Senate would be waiting until the Supreme Court heard another case on the law, which questions the legality of the government health care exchanges. He added that if given the opportunity, he would stand by his campaign pledge.
    “I still am someone who believes that Obamacare is not working for the best interests of Alaskans and Americans, and if there’s an opportunity to vote to repeal and replace and fix that, I’m going to vote for that.”
    Sullivan’s 2014 election campaign received support from Americans For Prosperity, an organization backed by the conservative billionaire Koch brothers. The group has been advocating against the expansion of Medicare.
    The opening of the Alaska branch also led to speculation that Americans For Prosperity would be sponsoring a conservative challenge to Sen. Lisa Murkowski in 2016. Murkowski lost her last primary race to Joe Miller in 2010, later winning a write-in campaign in the general election. Asked by reporters if he would support Murkowski in 2016, Sullivan was noncommittal.
    “Look, I’m just getting started in the Senate right now and I’m looking forward to moving on beyond the elections so, haven’t even thought about it.”
    The Senator took a number of questions from the audience. On marijuana he said “from the perch of a U.S. Senator I don’t see the federal government playing a huge role in this.”
    On Iran, Sullivan expressed concern about a nuclear treaty between Iran and the United States. He discussed how during the Iraq war, Iran supplied weapons to Iraqi fighters, including a sophisticated weapon called an Explosively Formed Projectile.
    “If it hit a tank, an Abrams tank, our poor soldiers in there were going to be wounded or killed. We knew who was supplying those. It was the Iranians. This is a country that I don’t have a lot of trust in and the administration is looking like they’re going to come up with a deal with them. And one of the things (the Obama administration) have said with that is ... they’re not going to run this treaty through the Senate,” he said. “You might see some bipartisan opposition to that.” 
    One member of the Chamber audience asked what would happen to science funding in the coming months and how that would affect fisheries. Sullivan sits on the Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, which oversees fisheries.
    “The federal government’s role with regards to science and research is critical, and I’m going to be pushing for that,” adding that he was skeptical of projects that diverted science funding towards other projects like ocean zoning.
    “I am someone who believes in the importance of science.”
    Sullivan said he’s willing to question some conclusions drawn by the scientific community, however. During his interview with reporters afterwards, Sullivan maintained his belief that climate change is not caused by human activity, as 97 percent of climate scientists believe.
    “I think climate change is happening, I just am not someone who believes that the science is settled on what’s causing it,”  he said.