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WASHINGTON — Sen. Lisa Murkowski last week called on her congressional colleagues to strengthen economic and national security by ratifying the Law of the Sea convention.

Murkowski’s comments come as warming temperatures in the Arctic are shrinking the polar ice cap, opening up new shipping routes and raising new resource development opportunities.

Murkowski said the United States needs to establish a comprehensive plan to address security, marine navigation, environmental protection and resource development in the Arctic before other countries move into the region.

“The Arctic is truly the last frontier,” Murkowski said. “It is one of the few places on Earth where all the borders aren’t drawn on the map yet, and some of those that are, are disputed.”

Murkowski, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations and Energy and Natural Resources committees, said the best way for the United States to protect its interests in the Arctic is for Congress to ratify the United Nations treaty, which provides a legal framework for governance in the Arctic.

“I believe it is very important for the United States to be a party to this treaty and be a player in the process, rather than an outsider hoping our interests are not damaged,” Murkowski said Wednesday at a forum on Arctic policy sponsored by the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.

A small group of GOP senators has blocked ratification of the treaty over concerns that it would restrict U.S. sovereignty. But Murkowski said those concerns have already been addressed, and there’s no reason for continued opposition.

“To be fair, I don’t think some of my colleagues are giving it a fair hearing,” Murkowski said.

The U.S. Geological Survey last week released a new assessment of the potential natural resources in the Arctic that shows the area holds more than a fifth of the world’s undiscovered, recoverable oil and natural gas.

The report found that the area north of the Arctic Circle contains an estimated 90 billion barrels of undiscovered, recoverable crude oil and nearly 1,670 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas.

The assessment, which took four years to complete, called the Arctic “the largest unexplored prospective area for petroleum remaining on earth.”

Findings such as those have added a sense of urgency to the efforts of Murkowski and others to win final approval of the Law of the Sea Treaty, which the other Arctic nations have already agreed to use as the legal framework for dealing with disputes in the region.

Arctic policy

The Bush administration is preparing a revised national security presidential directive on the Arctic that is expected to be unveiled in the next two weeks. The revised Arctic policy is expected to include a statement by the Bush administration in support of approving the U.N. treaty.

The comprehensive document will provide a basic framework for federal agencies to base their Arctic policies on, including direction on protecting the environment and management of energy resources.

Congressional aides said the policy on the Arctic, last updated in 1994, will likely result in the drafting of new legislation and policies covering national security, environmental, transportation and energy policy for the region.

While Bush will roll out the revised Arctic policy, it will be up to Congress and the next presidential administration to implement it, congressional aides said.

Resource opportunity

The USGS report found that gas is three times more abundant than oil in the Arctic, with nearly two-thirds of the undiscovered gas potential concentrated in Russia’s West Siberian Basin and the East Barents Basin.

More than half of the undiscovered oil resources are believed to be in Alaska and off the eastern coast of Greenland. Some 30 billion barrels of oil and 221 trillion cubic feet of gas are estimated to be locked beneath the polar ice cap directly adjacent to Alaska.

Donald Gautier, the chief geologist for the survey, called Alaska “the most obvious place to look for oil in the North Arctic right now. It is virtually certain that petroleum will be found there.”

In all, the Arctic holds about 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and 30 percent of the undiscovered gas, according to the USGS. Eighty-four percent of those resources are located offshore.

By comparison, the world’s proven and probable oil reserves are estimated to be 1.24 billion barrels; proven gas reserves stand at 6,263 trillion cubic feet.

Global oil demand is roughly 86 million barrels a day and rising. The United States consumes about a quarter of global production, with half of that being turned into gasoline and diesel for the nation’s transportation fleet.

The report, known as the Circum-Arctic Resource Appraisal, is the first comprehensive, publicly available estimate of the Arctic’s petroleum potential.

Until recently, oil and gas resources at the top of the world were considered too difficult and expensive to develop. But rising temperatures along with record-high energy prices have prompted nations bordering the Arctic to reassess the region’s potential.

Clashing interests

The potential for vast petroleum wealth in the Arctic has spurred intense interest among circumpolar nations — Russia, Canada, the U.S., Norway and Denmark — in claiming wide swaths of the central Arctic Ocean.

Shrinking investment opportunities around the globe also have made the Arctic, especially offshore Alaska and Canada, an increasingly attractive option for cash-flush energy companies.

Energy exploration north of the Arctic Circle has already resulted in the discovery of more than 400 oil and gas fields. The discoveries account for some 40 billion barrels of oil and more than 1.1 trillion cubic feet of gas.

In February, Royal Dutch Shell paid $2.1 billion to acquire leases in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea. ConocoPhillips spent $506 million in the same lease sale. Exxon Mobil and its subsidiary Imperial Oil last year bid $600 million on leases in Canada’s Beaufort Sea. Earlier this month, BP said it would spend $1.5 billion to develop its offshore Liberty field in Alaska’s Beaufort Sea.

The USGS assessment shows that much of the as-yet-undiscovered resources are closer to shore than originally suspected, in areas that are not subject to territorial dispute.

“For a variety of reasons, the possibility of oil and gas exploration in the Arctic has become much less hypothetical than it once was,” Gautier said. “Most of the resources are on the continental shelf in areas already under territorial claims.”

While that discovery should ease the potential for international disputes over who has the right to tap the resources under the central Arctic Ocean, the United States and other circumpolar nations have begun beefing up their military presence in the region just in case.

Russia, which is already the world’s largest gas producer and has vast onshore gas reserves, has staked claim to 460,000 square miles of the Arctic seabed. Denmark has challenged Russia’s claim before the United Nations and is asserting its own claim based on its sovereign relationship with Greenland.

Norway has staked its own title to sovereignty over parts of the Arctic Ocean floor, and Canada recently announced it was boosting its military capabilities in the Arctic.

The United States, which has its own dispute with Canada over who controls a portion of the Beaufort Sea, also has initiated steps to beef up the Coast Guard on its northern border.

Clock running out

The United States is at a bit of a disadvantage when it comes to disputes in the Arctic because of its failure to ratify the Law of the Sea Treaty, which the other four circumpolar nations have agreed to use as the basis for governing the region, Murkowski said.

“We are not able to make a claim in the Arctic until we ratify the treaty,” she said.

Ratifying the treaty would allow the United States to lay claim to an area in the Arctic roughly the size of California, Murkowski said.

“If we do not become a party to the treaty, our opportunity to make this claim, and have the international community respect it, diminishes considerably,” she said.

Murkowski said she’s been trying to convince enough of her colleagues to approve the treaty before the end of the year. Time is running out for anything to be done in the 110th Congress, though. Congress has just three weeks on the legislative clock this year.

“I would hate to have to start all over again next year,” Murkowski said.

Strike allocations

Alaska’s congressional delegation introduced legislation Thursday that would authorize the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to set the subsistence bowhead whale harvest quota in the event the International Whaling Commission failed to do so.

The bill is aimed at countering Japan’s efforts to hold subsistence whaling activities by Alaska’s Inupiat and Siberian Yupik hostage in an attempt to win approval for commercial harvests. It also would remove some of the pressure animal rights groups regularly put on other IWC member countries to ban all whaling activities.

Russia natives take a few bowheads in some years, so the quota applies in both Alaska and Russia. However, the majority of whales are taken by crews from 11 Alaska coastal villages.

Annual catch limits for subsistence whaling are set through periodic negotiations of the IWC. The existing quota allows for 280 bowhead to be taken for subsistence purposes through 2012.

A congressional aide for Sen. Murkowski said the measure would take some of the politics out of setting the quota. The measure is supported by Alaska Eskimo Whaling Commission.

Begich visits the Hill

Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich was on Capitol Hill last week to meet with Senate Democratic leaders and raise money for his campaign to unseat incumbent Ted Stevens.

A small Democratic political action committee called Blue Catapult held a fundraiser for Begich’s Senate campaign on Wednesday at an Irish bar in Dupont Circle. About 25 supporters came out after work to hear Begich talk about his focus on energy, the environment, education, health care and veterans issues.

New York Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer, head of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, held a breakfast fundraiser for Begich on Wednesday, as well.

Begich said he didn’t know how much was raised at the events, but said 73 percent of the donations to his campaign in the second quarter, in which he raised about $1 million, came from small donors who gave less than $100 each.

During his three-day visit, Begich also attended a Senate hearing on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision on punitive damages in the Exxon Valdez lawsuit.

A recent Rasmussen Reports poll shows Begich with a nine point lead over Stevens, after trailing him slightly the month before. The survey of 500 likely voters shows Begich beating Stevens 50 percent to 41 percent if the election were held today.

Previous Rasmussen polls had the two candidates within 2 percentage points of each other.

Begich, 46, credited his recent TV advertisements — one on his energy plan, the other a biographical spot — for the bump in popularity.

“That means people are hearing our message,” he said.

The Rasmussen poll, conducted July 17, found that 63 percent of Alaska voters have a favorable view of Begich, up from 56 percent last month. Stevens is viewed favorably by 50 percent of likely voters, which has not changed from the previous month.

Begich said he doesn’t believe the recent thaw in relations between Stevens and Republican Gov. Sarah Palin will hurt his chances in the November general election.

Even if Palin endorses Stevens’ candidacy — something she has so far not done — Alaskans tend to embrace their independent streak in the voting booth, Begich said.

Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Schumer said Alaska was among the top five Senate seats the DSCC is targeting this year.

“We think Alaska is a race we’re going to win,” Schumer said. “Mark Begich is just an incredible candidate. He would really do Alaska proud in the Senate.”

Schumer, who’s overseeing Democrats’ efforts to capture nine additional Senate seats to reach a filibuster-proof, 60-seat majority said “He’s the mayor of Anchorage ... and the good news for us is it’s not a Democratic part of the state. In other words, it’s a swing-to-Republican area, so if he does well in Anchorage, and you add on the panhandle where Juneau is and the rural areas which tend to be Democratic, and then you add Ted Stevens’ decline in popularity — very significant — we believe we’re going to win.”

Stevens has repeatedly blasted Schumer and the DSCC for trying to influence the Alaska race with Outside money.

And finally ...

Government watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense was surprised to see Rep. Don Young run a campaign commercial last week claiming the group had named the congressman “Hero of the Taxpayers” for his tax-cutting efforts 2007.

The only problem was the group didn’t give Young the award — it was Americans for Tax Reform.

“The only award we have given Rep. Young is a Golden Fleece Award, for the ‘bridges to nowhere,’” said Keith Ashdown, chief investigator for Taxpayers for Common Sense.

Ashdown should know: He coined the phrase ‘bridges to nowhere’ to describe the Knik Arm and Ketchikan bridges. Young won that dubious honor in 2003.

Mike Anderson, Young’s campaign spokesman, acknowledged the mistake and said the commercial, which began airing Thursday on radio stations in Fairbanks, Juneau and Anchorage, was pulled Friday morning as soon as the campaign realized the error.