As environmentalists prepare for battle, Trump has targeted Alaska’s oil and other resources

President Donald Trump’s sweeping executive order to boost oil and gas drilling, mining and drilling in Alaska is being cheered by state political leaders who see new fossil fuel development as critical to Alaska’s economic future and criticized by environmental groups who say the proposals are worrisome. In the face of rising temperatures.

The order, signed on Trump’s first day Monday, is in line with a wish list presented by Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy shortly after Trump’s election. Among other things, he wants to reverse the Biden administration’s restrictions on drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska, to open up oil and gas drilling in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, which is considered sacred to the Gwich’in Native. North-slope and reverse constraints on wolves, bears, and salmon in frontal and road construction in a tropical rain forest.

In many ways, the order seeks to return to the policies of Trump’s first term.

But Trump says Cooper Freeman, director of the Alaska Center for Biological Diversity, “can’t wave magic and make these things happen.” Local laws and regulations must be followed in any attempt to address existing policies, and legal challenges to Trump’s plans are almost certain, he said.

“We look forward to the fight of our lives to keep Alaska great, wild and abundant,” Freeman said.

What is planned for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?

The order seeks to reverse a decision by the Biden administration that canceled seven leases awarded as part of the first oil and gas lease sale in the offshore field. Major oil companies have not participated in sales in the waning days of Trump’s first term in early 2021. The lease went to a government corporation. Two smaller companies that won leases at that sale had already left.

Trump’s order calls for the Secretary of the Interior to “initiate additional leases” and all permits and easements necessary for oil and gas exploration and development. Gwich’in leaders oppose drilling on the coastal plain, citing its importance to the caribou herds on which they depend. Leaders of the Kaktovik Inupiaq community on the reservation support the drilling and have expressed hope that their voices will be heard in the Trump administration after being upset by former President Joe Biden.

This is the second lease sale mandated by federal law in 2017 that has yielded no bids weeks later. The law requires two lease sales by the end of 2024. Earlier this month, the state sued the Ministry of the Interior and federal officials, among other things, that the latest sales contract was too restrictive.

What will Alaska’s political leaders say?

Alaska leaders welcomed Trump’s order, which was titled “Unlocking Alaska’s Unique Data Potential.”

“It’s morning again in Alaska,” said Republican US Senator Dan Sullivan.

“President Trump delivers for the first time in office!” Dunleavy said on social media. This is what choice is all about.

Alaska has a history of fighting what it perceives as an overreach by the federal government that affects the state’s ability to develop its natural resources. Although State leaders have complained during the Biden administration that efforts to further develop oil, gas and minerals are being unfairly blocked, despite a major victory in 2023 with the approval of a major oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska called Willow. Environmentalists are fighting that permit in court.

Dunleavy has repeatedly argued that development of Alaska’s vast resources is critical to its future, and while pursuing oil, gas and coal development and timber programs, he has billed carbon storage and carbon offset programs to raise revenue.

The state faces economic challenges: oil production, longevity, an aging population in part due to aging, and more than a decade ago, more people than ever left Alaska.

What will happen now?

Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Western Priority Conservation Group, called Trump’s order an “everything, everywhere, all at once order,” which in some cases seeks to undo steps the Biden administration took years to implement.

“The amount of time it takes the Department of the Interior to do everything in that executive order is worth at least a word, maybe two. And then, when it all comes back, you need science on your side. And we know that. Especially in the case of Alaska, the science is not on unlimited drilling,” Air said. They pointed to property concerns and Arctic warming.

Communities face the effects of climate change, including thinning sea ice, coastal erosion, and melting permafrost that destroys infrastructure.

Eric Grafe, a lawyer for the group Earthjustice, called the Arctic “the worst place to expand oil and gas development. It’s not a good place because we have to contract and transition to a green economy and solve the climate crisis.”