I think we need a rational, clear-headed, eyes-wide-open approach to energy and mineral development. We don't want to go backward on energy, and we c… - Lisa Murkowski

When we had an opportunity to bring this to the floor earlier, there was a desire and an interest in making sure that we were focusing on our clean and renewable energy sector. We do that within that bill. It has been interesting because in the past several weeks, we have heard calls from Members of this body to prioritize a robust clean energy recovery plan. There was a letter from 24 Members of the Senate who urged Senate leadership to "prioritize a robust clean energy recovery plan." In their letter, they call for investments in renewable energy, energy storage, energy efficiency, clean vehicles, clean and efficient infrastructure, clean fuels, and workforce development. That sounds pretty much like what we included within our American Energy Innovation Act. I sent many of them just a quick letter detailing how our bill really does accomplish just that, including the specifics that focus on each of these priorities, and encourage them to help me pass it.

After years of lagging behind, the United States has come to a better place on energy in recent years. We have seen domestic production rising. We have seen our emissions falling. We have created jobs. We have generated revenues. We have changed the world geopolitically even as we have lessened our impact on the climate. But these kinds of gains can't be taken for granted. They can't be actively ignored. They certainly should not be discarded. We have to acknowledge that this energy renewal has not been even across the country. It has taken place largely on State and private lands. We have very limited private land in Alaska. And instate activity--we have been proudly producing for a while. But we also have, again, much land that is federally held, and we have only seen help arrive with any kind of activity and production on Federal land in the past few years. I would suggest that we cannot afford that forward progress to be reversed, but unfortunately that is the way it feels right now. The threat is that this administration is going to take an approach that is going to take us backwards.

We all have heard some of the legendary stories of when individuals kind of came head-to-head or toe-to-toe with John McCain, and certainly there were some areas where we disagreed. We had a little bit different view on earmarks. And that was not just my relationship with Senator McCain but previous Alaskan Senators as well. But I think we all agreed that our disagreements were principled in nature. I remember one very interesting and heated exchange over the merits of essential air service, and John was on one side of the issue and I was an advocate for essential air. We were literally nose-to-nose, and I said: "Don't you understand that it is called essential air because it is essential because we don't have roads to these places?" And he kind of growled at me and: "Well, I don't know why we need to have it." There were legendary back-and-forths, and sometimes you won, sometimes John won, but it was always with a great deal of passion that these exchanges moved forward.