President Donald Trump's sweeping executive order to revive drilling, mining and logging in Alaska is being applauded by state political leaders who see the development of new fossil fuels as crucial to Alaska's economic future and criticized by environmental groups who see the proposals as troubling. the face of a warming climate.
The order, signed Monday on Trump's first day in office, follows a wish list put forth by Republican Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy shortly after Trump's election. Its goals include opening up to oil and gas drilling an area of pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge considered sacred to the indigenous Gwich'in people, lifting restrictions imposed by the Biden administration on drilling activities in the Alaska North Slope National Petroleum Refuge and ending harvesting restrictions timber and road construction in the temperate rainforest that is home to wolves, bears and salmon.
In many respects, the regulation aims to return to the policies that existed during Trump's first term.
But Trump “can't just wave a magic wand and make these things happen,” said Cooper Freeman, director of the Alaska Center for Biological Diversity. When trying to untangle existing policies, environmental laws and rules must be followed, and legal challenges to Trump's plans are virtually certain, he said.
“We are ready and looking forward to the fight of a lifetime to keep Alaska great, wild and bountiful,” Freeman said.
What are the plans for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?
The order seeks to reverse the Biden administration's decision to cancel seven leases issued in the first-ever oil and gas lease sale in the refuge's coastal plain. The largest oil companies did not participate in the sale, which took place in early 2021, at the end of Trump's first term. The lease agreement went to a state-owned company. Two small companies that also obtained lease agreements in this sale canceled them earlier.
Trump's order calls on the Secretary of the Interior to “commence additional leasing” and issue all permits and easements necessary for oil and gas exploration and development. Gwich'in leaders oppose drilling in the coastal plain, citing its importance to the caribou herd they rely on. Leaders of the Inupiaq community in Kaktovik, which is located within the refuge, support drilling and expressed hope that their voices will be heard in the Trump administration after frustration with former President Joe Biden.
This comes several weeks after a second lease sale, required under a 2017 federal law, it didn't bring any offers. The law required two lease sales to be offered by the end of 2024. Earlier this month, the state sued the Department of the Interior and federal officials, alleging, among other things, that the terms of the latest sale were too restrictive.
What are Alaska political leaders saying?
Alaska leaders welcomed Trump's executive order, titled “Unlocking Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential.”
“It's morning again in Alaska,” Republican Senator Dan Sullivan declared.
“President Trump delivered on his first day in office!” Dunleavy said on social media. “This is why elections matter.”
Alaska has a history of fighting perceived federal government overreach that affects the state's ability to develop its natural resources. State leaders have complained under the Biden administration that efforts to continue extracting oil, gas and minerals are being unfairly hampered, although they also won a significant victory with the 2023 approval of a major oil project known as Willow on the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Environmentalists are fighting this consent in court.
Dunleavy has repeatedly argued that developing Alaska's vast resources is critical to its future, and has billed underground carbon storage and carbon offset programs as a way to diversify revenues while continuing to extract oil, gas and coal and pursue timber programs .
The state faces economic challenges: Oil production, which has long been its lifeblood, is a fraction of what it once was, in part because of aging fields, and for more than a decade, more people have left Alaska than moved here.
What will happen now?
Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the conservation group Center for Western Priorities, called Trump's order “an everything, everywhere, everything at once” order aimed at rolling back measures that, in some cases, took the Biden administration years to enact.
“The time it would take for the Department of the Interior to accomplish everything in this regulation is worth at least one term, maybe two. And even then, there would be some learning needed on your end once things get back to normal. And we know that, especially in the case of Alaska, the science does not support unlimited drilling,” he said, pointing to climate concerns and a warming Arctic.
Communities have experienced the effects of climate change, including thinning sea ice, coastal erosion and melting permafrost that weakens infrastructure.
Erik Grafe, a lawyer with the group Earthjustice, called the Arctic “the worst place to expand oil and gas production. No place is good as we have to shrink and transition to a green economy and tackle the climate crisis.”