TESTIMONY OF ALASKAN TED GIANOUTSOS
At the OCS Oil Hearings in Anchorage on April 14, 2009

I come here today to testify to Interior Secretary Salazar about oil, wildlife, giving, and honorable service to my country. I ask that my 1-page testimony be made part of the record. I have given to my country all of my adult life. In 1961, I volunteered for the Air Force. In 1983, my wife Francoise and I gave our estate to our country and thus founded the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) – see tedandfran.com. I also stood up against pork-barrel contract fraud and waste at Interior where I worked, and was illegally fired for my honest civil service.

Oil has fueled America’s freedom for 100 years, and made America the dominant power in the world. It is American force of arms fueled by oil that guarantees my freedom, your freedom, Mr. Secretary, and that of President Obama. I am extremely grateful for oil’s many benefits in my life. I resent President Obama’s bad-mouthing oil that also fuels the security of every American. Mr. Secretary, it is NOT green alternative energy; it is the black oil, that President Obama bad-mouths, that guarantees our freedom and protects our lives.

Alaska has oil in abundance, especially in ANWR and offshore. We have responsibly produced billions of barrels of oil for decades. We can produce much more, particularly in ANWR, while creating a multi-billion dollar National Endowment for Wildlife (N.E.W.) located in the NFWF that will fund wilderness and wildlife conservation throughout Alaska and America, as long as America exists.

I call on you and President Obama to stop bad-mouthing oil, and instead proclaim the true enormous benefits of oil to America. I ask you both to enthusiastically support my 25-year effort to open ANWR and create the National Endowment for Wildlife. While you both are doing the right thing for oil and ANWR, I also ask both of you to right the wrongs done to me at Interior 25 years ago. You both have ample authority to do so. Long ago, I assigned the millions of dollars in back-pay and interest that my government owes me for my honorable service to the Alaska Veterans Foundation. NBC Channel 2 News broadcast my assignment. That’s my testimony, Mr. Secretary. Please support Alaska oil production, especially in ANWR. Please help me open ANWR, with the N.E.W., in the most beneficial way for America, for Alaska, and for wildlife. Please do the justice for me that both your, and President Obama’s, predecessors have failed to do for 25 years.