Use of a Submarine in Ice-Covered Arctic Waters to Help Delimit the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf Page: 2 of 17
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delimited. There is a special allowance for coastal states that acceded prior to 1999. Their
submission deadline is 2009. A 21-member technical committee, the Commission on the Limits
of the Continental Shelf (CLCS), reviews and evaluates these submissions.
Once the CLCS provides a positive recommendation on the ECS submission from a
coastal state, that state may then establish final and binding ECS limits based on the CLCS
recommendations, thus providing legal certainty and enabling the state to take full advantage of
its rights and natural resources in the area.
The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted the Convention out of committee in
November 2007, and should the U.S. accede, it will begin the 10-year effort to develop its
submission. Norway submitted their delimitation in 2006, and other coastal States, including
adjacent Canada, Denmark, and Russia, are currently delimiting their respective ECS areas. The
U.S. should as well, regardless of accession. Our nation's best interests are served by collecting
and analyzing data to better establish and to better understand the limits of our ECS.
III. MOTIVATION. Several factors motivate us to accelerate the pace of delimiting of our
nation's ECS. These include: (1) anticipation that the U.S. will accede to the Convention within
the next 1-2 years; (2) growing appreciation that the data collection and analysis effort are more
arduous and time consuming than initially thought, particularly in light of the fact that over 50
percent of our anticipated ECS area falls within the ice-covered Arctic Ocean; (3) greater
knowledge about the limits of our ECS puts the U.S. on a stronger footing under customary
international maritime law, regardless of accession; (4) continued energy demand and the
realization that considerable fossil fuel resources lie within the anticipated ECS areas,
particularly in the Arctic Ocean, where, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, possibly 25%2
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U.S. Arctic Research Commission. Use of a Submarine in Ice-Covered Arctic Waters to Help Delimit the U.S. Extended Continental Shelf, text, December 18, 2007; (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc949045/m1/2/: accessed March 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.