BIOMASS HUB

The Hill reports that Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) said Thursday that she will fight to move Alaska out of the liberal U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which has served as a venue for environmental group challenges to oil drilling plans.

Murkowski is the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and has been upset with litigation that has delayed Shell Oil’s exploration off Alaska’s coast.

In a speech she delivered on her home turf to the Alaska State Legislature, Murkowski explained:

So-called public interest litigation groups view Alaska as fertile ground to push the edges of environmental advocacy, without regard to the Alaskans who may be hurt by the outcome.  These groups have long enjoyed a sympathetic ear in the San Francisco-based Ninth Circuit. And adding insult to injury, when they succeed in establishing gotcha precedents, U.S. taxpayers are required to pay their expenses. We will need a sea change in Congress to make it happen, but I will never drop my fight to move Alaska out of the Ninth Circuit.

Most recently, the Senator launched an attack to prevent the EPA from acting on its endangerment ruling, which sets the stage for the agency to regulate GHG gases under the Clean Air Act.

Her speech is available on her website here.