§6505 Executive Department Responsibility for Studies to Determine Procedures Used in Development, Production, Transportation, and Distribution of Petroleum Resources in Reserve; Reports to Congress by President; Establishment of Task Force by Secretary of the Interior; Purposes; Membership; Report and Recommendations to Congress by Secretary; Contents

Summary

The President must order federal departments and agencies, working with Alaska representatives, to study the best ways to develop, produce, move, and distribute the reserve’s petroleum. The study must look at different ways to do this and at the economic and environmental effects of each way. The President must give progress reports every six months to the Senate and House Committees on Interior and Insular Affairs, starting no later than six months after April 5, 1976. He must report findings not later than one year after the reserve’s jurisdiction is transferred and then every year after that. The full study, with recommended procedures and any needed laws, must be finished and sent to those committees by January 1, 1980. The Secretary of the Interior must set up a task force to study the value and best uses of the reserve lands. The study must consider native people who live on or depend on the land, scenic and recreational and wildlife values, mineral potential, and other values. The task force will include Alaska government and Arctic Slope native representatives and Interior Department offices such as the Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, Geological Survey, and Bureau of Mines. The Secretary must send a report, including any agreeing or differing views from non‑Federal task force members, to the same congressional committees within three years after April 5, 1976, with recommendations on value, best use, and land designation.