WASHINTON — Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R-AK), who maintains that President Donald Trump has been the best president ever for Alaska, exclusively told Breitbart News he believes the Trump administration is serious about moving quickly to help unleash Alaska’s energy potential.
Dunleavy spoke with Breitbart News via phone call Friday after leaving the governors working session at the White House.
“In President Trump’s first term, he was by far the best president in Alaska’s history for Alaska. I would say that just the first few weeks, he has — difficult to believe — but far exceeded my expectations, and my expectations were high compared to the last term,” Dunleavy said when asked about the actions taken thus far by the president to promote American energy development. “And so just tremendous on the executive orders, we’re the only state that had one. Tremendous on the energy executive orders.”
Dunleavy noted that he had been in regular contact with two critical payers in the administration when it comes to energy, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright.
“I spoke to Doug Burgum, for example, and Chris Wright, just this week, several times, including today, talking about Alaskan energy,” he added. “I get no indication that they are not serious. I get every indication that they’re very serious and that they’re going to move at breakneck speed to help us with our gas project and other projects we have in Alaska.”
“This week, I’ve been meeting with representatives from the Philippine government, Korean government, you name it. I mean, we’ve been on the phone with folks all over the world on this pipeline project, and there is incredible interest in it and people forming partnerships,” he added. “And I think you’re going to see a lot of papers signed here, very briefly.”
Dunleavy said that Wright and Burgum would be critical in helping to maximize Alaska’s energy potential and spoke to his relationship with Burgum, who oversees 500 million acres of surface in the country as interior secretary.
“The secretaries will be very important. That’s why we’re in contact early on; we’ll continue to be in contact with him. I mean, we’re probably the Department of Interior’s largest portfolio with all of our lands, our parks, indigenous people, energy, you name it,” he said. “And I’ve known Doug when he was a governor; great guy, great pick. Chris Wright — I’m just getting to know him — very enthusiastic, very smart guy. He sees what needs to be done.”
At the state level, Dunleavy says all the ducks are in a row for the pipeline.
“As far as the state goes, we’ve got all our permits for this pipeline, both federal and state. We’ve been working on this project for a long time, and what we’re going to continue to do is just work in partnership with the Trump administration so they can assist us with our international partners and allies, as well as large investors and we too are contacting those same folks to give them more detailed information when they need it,” he detailed.
“And we just got to make sure that our permitting process remains robust, which, right now, it is,” he added. “We have no problem with making sure that all the state permits will be there. We’ve got most of those in order, and the other ones, there’s temporary timelines on them, and so we just expedite those. So no problem from the state side of things, no problem, I think, from the federal side of things because we have all the permits, and the court cases have pretty much been beaten back with the assistance of the federal government. So we’re just in the process now of forming up the partnerships and solidifying those partnerships.”
Dunleavy also discussed the importance of passing legislation at the federal level to solidify Trump’s pro-energy policies implemented through the executive branch so a future anti-energy president cannot restrict the industry with executive orders.
“It’s incredibly important, and I’ve stated that on several occasions here this week, with governors and to the secretaries, that you make it incredibly difficult for anyone to want to invest, especially in resource plays, because they have a long runway,” he said. “And we need to get as much of this embedded into law and not just up to the agencies because … once the administration is out, a new administration comes in, they’ll probably continue to do what they’ve been doing to Alaska for years, and that is jerking things around, making it very unstable, no certainty, which means no investment, which means no projects, which means less economic activity and opportunity for Alaskans. So it’s very important.”