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these contracts. But by the same token, there is 15 to 20 years left 

 on both contracts, and we are moving into an area of legislation 

 without the input of the plan that Congress approved, which is the 

 TLMP of all of the input from all of the people. 



I would hope my friend from Colorado recognizes the realities as- 

 sociated with Alaska as he visits our state because we talked about 

 the balance of payments debt with Japan. We are a positive con- 

 tributor to that. We are an answer to the problem. The $424 mil- 

 lion of export value of our timber, about $336 million goes to 

 Japan. That offsets our deficit balance payment. 



My friend from Colorado has got to understand that the Japa- 

 nese are not getting the jobs in Sitka or Ketchikan or elsewhere. It 

 is the Alaskans that are employed in these mills. The payroll taxes 

 are paid by our American citizens working in these mills. The Jap- 

 anese are paying taxes. They own the mill here in Ketchikan. 



As we look at Alaska, and Governor Cowper knows it better than 

 anyone, and we talk about assistance to the industry. Well, appar- 

 ently the government has been giving assistance to the industry in 

 the form of $4 million. That has already been acknowledged and 

 we are taking it away. 



If we want to continue to chew on it, we can, but let us look at 

 some of our other industries. Look at coal. We are developing a 

 coal industry in the state. The state is assisting, and they should. 

 We have a state-owned railroad that carries the coal. I would hope 

 that my colleague has an opportunity to go down to Seward and 

 view that. We have a port in Seward that was assisted by state 

 funds so that we could bring about development of our coal indus- 

 try because it would not happen unless we do. 



Now, is that the kind of subsidy that we are talking about in the 

 timber industry? No. We have had Federal assistance over an ex- 

 tended period of time for the 1.7 million acres in wilderness. 



I would hope my colleague would have a chance to go down to 

 the Kenal and recognize that we have been exporting natural gas 

 since about 1967. We sent two tankers a week. Fortunately, we 

 have never had an accident and knock on wood. 



The realities are that as you look at Alaska's resources, and we 

 are talking about gas and coal and high-rock minerals, and most of 

 our fishing industry off shore is partially owned by foreigners — the 

 Japanese in many cases. We have a timber industry that is owned 

 in Sitka by Japanese, but we compete in the world marketplace. 

 We compete with South Africa. We compete with Australia. We are 

 either going to be competitive or we are not in the market with our 

 resources in those areas. 



The only area where we are not free under the market condi- 

 tions is the export of our oil and as the Governor knows we are 

 prohibited by Federal law, dictated by the selfish interests of spe- 

 cial interest groups, that do not allow us to find a free market for 

 our oil. We could save the American taxpayer money and we could 

 save and bring into the coffers of the State of Alaska substantially 

 more revenue if we could export our oil because the transportation 

 costs are less than shipping it to the Gulf Coast or the lower areas 

 but we are prohibited by U.S. Federal law that says, "No, Alaska is 

 different." 



