Citing an increase in domestic energy production and job creation, the House Natural Resources Committee proposed legislation Friday that would open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and natural gas production. 

Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, of Washington, and Alaska Rep. Don Young announced plans to introduce the Alaskan Energy for American Jobs Act, which is part of the energy and infrastructure jobs bill announced by Ohio Rep. John Boehner in early November. 

Officials said the act would open less than 3 percent of ANWR's 19 million acres in the North Slope, which the U.S. Geological Survey estimates contains at least 10.4 billion barrels of oil and at peak production can yield nearly 1.5 million barrels of oil per day -- more than the current daily U.S. imports from Saudi Arabia. The area was specifically set aside for energy production by Congress and President Jimmy Carter.

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"ANWR would be a great opportunity for the environmental community and the oil industry to work closely together and show what American technology and ingenuity could do," Alaska District Council of Laborers (ADCL) Tim Sharp said in the oversight hearing. ADCL represents approximately 5,000 Alaskan union members. 

Fenton Okomailak Rexford, Tribal Administrator for the Native Village of Katovik, said development of the North Slope will keep his community alive by sustaining a local school and continuing to provide search and rescue, police and fire protection.

[Gotta feed the bulldog]