In Nikiski, a community of a few thousand people in southern Alaska, the talk around town recently has been President Trump’s championing of a project called Alaska L.N.G.

In what would be the biggest energy investment in American history, the $44 billion plan involves shipping liquefied natural gas, or L.N.G., from fields in Alaska’s north to buyers in Japan and elsewhere in Asia. The project’s exports would run through Nikiski.

In America’s northernmost state, a project like Alaska L.N.G. has been sought after for decades with little progress. But more recently, it has become a centerpiece of the Trump administration’s efforts to boost U.S. fossil fuel production.

For Nikiski and its surrounding communities, Alaska L.N.G. would provide an economic lifeline.

Nikiski is perched on the Kenai Peninsula, a region south of Anchorage that has been dependent on local reserves of oil and gas for over half a century. In recent decades, those supplies have dwindled.

In Nikiski, the peninsula’s dense expanse of forests and lakes gives way to a coastline that is dotted with aging industrial facilities, many of which have been shut for years. Empty storefronts line the one main road through town.