Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Alaska's delegation has floated a package of ideas to senators to open up more energy leases in the state in reconciliation.
Why it matters: It's an opening bid as the Senate looks to move a budget resolution out of committee this week and Republicans struggle with just how much money they can squeeze out of oil and gas production.
Driving the news: Sen. Lisa Murkowski said Alaskans have "submitted our input" that includes more leasing in the Cook Inlet, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, National Petroleum Reserve and parts of the 625 million acres around the U.S. that the Biden administration took off the table for offshore drilling.
- "It's effectively rolling back so much of what we saw come out during the Biden administration," she told reporters Tuesday.
- Murkowski also said she wants to bolster domestic minerals production via the Defense Production Act — something already on the table in the House.
What they're saying: House Republicans are working with a similar set of ideas on leasing.
- Majority Leader Steve Scalise told reporters Tuesday he thinks they can generate "billions of dollars by opening up areas in the Gulf of America and Alaska and other federal lands that were closed off by the Biden administration."
- Rep. Nick Begich also brought up Cook Inlet, telling Axios: "We need more lease sales there because we are desperately running out of natural gas to heat our homes in south-central Alaska."
Zoom in: The initial draft of the Senate's budget resolution would direct the Energy and Natural Resources and House Natural Resources panels to reduce the deficit by $1 billion over 10 years in a reconciliation bill.
- CBO estimated that the ANWR leases alone from the 2017 tax bill would generate $1.1 billion in revenue, but the sales didn't come close to that in reality.
- And for context, in fiscal 2024, total revenue from energy and minerals on federal and tribal lands was about $16 billion.
- We'll be watching to see what CBO thinks these provisions are actually worth in revenue this time around.
Yes, but: The two chambers are headed for a procedural clash as GOP senators look to put the leasing provisions in the first of two proposed reconciliation bills.
- The House Budget Committee on Tuesday morning noticed a markup for Thursday on its own resolution to write a single bill rolling together tax cuts, IRA rollbacks and offshore leasing.
- But House Republicans emerged from a conference meeting this morning with few hard ideas about what their process will look like.
- The Budget Committee was "finishing final numbers, but I don't know what the final numbers are," E&C Chair Brett Guthrie told reporters.
What's next: Murkowski said the Senate budget resolution could be on the floor as soon as next week.
