A small Native community in the remote North Slope borough of Alaska has been at the center of debates in Washington, D.C., over bringing “drill, baby, drill” to its backyard — and it isn’t completely against the idea. 

More than 3,000 miles northwest of Washington sits the small village of Kaktovik, Alaska. With roots tracing back thousands of years, the Native residents have no intention of leaving and want to see their people and village grow over the years. For most, that can’t happen without more drilling. 

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The people of Kaktovik 

It’s not easy to get to Kaktovik. The village is located on Barter Island, more than 600 miles north of Anchorage, Alaska, and roughly 90 miles west of the Canadian border. 

The secluded village of fewer than 300 residents is at the northern tip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. There is no main road connecting the outpost to the rest of Alaska, and visitors can only access the village by small plane or ship. 

Despite its remote location, Kaktovik is far from lacking modern conveniences such as cable television, public electricity, public radio, heated water, a health clinic, and even a trash pickup service. For Mayor Nathan Gordon Jr., the village has the fossil fuel industry to thank. 

“Communities across the North Slope have long lacked basic infrastructure other communities in the Lower 48 take for granted — including modern water and sewer systems and resilient telecommunications networks,” Gordon told the Washington Examiner. 

Gordon, who was born and raised in Kaktovik, explained that even as recently as 20 years ago, many residents didn’t have flushing toilets. 

Kaktovik, like other villages and cities in the North Slope, relies heavily on tax revenue generated by resource development projects such as oil and gas drilling. In fact, more than 95% of North Slope Borough’s budget comes from this revenue. 

Native leaders in the region said this has allowed smaller villages to maintain modern sewer systems, build and repair schools, support a local economy, and even lengthen their average life expectancy. 

Charles Lampe, who is Iñupiaq and was also born and raised in Kaktovik, told the Washington Examiner their village’s life expectancy has jumped from 34 to 77 in just the last 60 years.

As Kaktovik has seen immense economic and rural growth, leaders in the village see a pathway for oil and gas projects to benefit them even more. 

For example, the cost of living is extremely high in Kaktovik, as all goods and services are brought to the region via small plane or barge. As a result, basic items like a single ribeye steak sell for around $35 to $40. Gordon said he will buy a 24-pack of water for about $65. 

These high prices are seen across the North Slope. Data compiled by the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat and obtained by the Washington Examiner show that a single gallon of whole milk in the region can cost as much as $14.99, and large packs of toilet paper as much as $30 to $40. 

If Kaktovik were able to build a road system connecting the village to the rest of Alaska, with funds generated by taxation on new energy projects, those prices could fall dramatically. 

“The industry has the money to help us be on the road system … and I believe that’d be the greatest help to the cost of living anywhere in Alaska. The road system would cut freight in half,” Gordon said. 

“I believe that the best way to do it is through industry, and the industry needs to take care of their infrastructure, the pipeline, and it’d be great for both of us,” he added. 

Why Alaska matters to Trump 

President Donald Trump and his administration have had their sights set on Alaska as a resource for increasing domestic oil and gas production for months. 

The 49th state is widely recognized as being rich in natural resources, with the North Slope Borough home to some of the largest oil and gas fields in the United States. Alaska’s energy sector accounts for roughly half of the state’s economy, thanks to direct and indirect jobs within the fossil fuel industry as well as revenues from oil and gas projects. 

For years, administrations have disagreed on how and when to create opportunities for increased drilling in the state, particularly in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, or NPR-A, and ANWR — both located in the North Slope. 

Most existing drilling projects in the region are located in and around the NPR-A. There has been very little resource development in ANWR and its coastal plain, in part due to restrictions on land use and available acreage imposed under the Biden administration. 

Congress first authorized drilling in ANWR in 2017, though little movement has been seen since. During his first administration, Trump approved nine lease sales in ANWR. The Biden administration ultimately suspended seven of these, while two were canceled by bidding companies. 

The back-and-forth illustrates the broader debate within the U.S. rooted in the energy trilemma – the challenge every nation faces in balancing energy equity, energy security, and a transition to more sustainable sources of power. 

Democrats and climate activists have urged fossil fuel companies to look elsewhere for energy development, promoting more sustainable alternatives and citing concerns over the impact new drilling projects could have on the surrounding environment and wildlife.

For Republicans, however, Alaska’s untapped resources are too good to be ignored, particularly as electricity demand from artificial intelligence and data centers is only expected to rise and threaten grid security if more energy is not secured.   

A warning from others 

Not everyone who lives in the North Slope is on board. 

The majority of energy development that has already occurred in the North Slope has primarily been limited to the NPR-A and regions near the oil-rich Prudhoe Bay, where the trans-Alaskan pipeline system starts. 

One of these projects, known as the Willow project, is located in the western region of NPR-A, near the city of Nuiqsut. The project, led by ConocoPhillips, is estimated to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak, generating as much as $17 billion in new revenue for the state. 

Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, the former mayor of Nuiqsut, told the Washington Examiner that ice roads created for the project have since separated some caribou herds, threatening the survival of young calves. 

She also pointed to past oil well blowouts near the city, which caused emissions clouds to drift into the village. As a result of the incidents, Ahtuangaruak claimed several residents developed respiratory distress. 

“These are not things Kaktovik have gone through, and when they are hidden from these adverse events, they don’t know the risk of what they’re going through,”  Ahtuangaruak told the Washington Examiner. “But we haven’t been hidden from these risks. We have lived through them in our village, and these are very different observations about what we’re going through.” 

She admitted that there is an important need to secure resources to heat their homes and support rural development, but she indicated there needs to be greater care taken to support and protect the surrounding communities from the risks energy development can bring. 

“The reality is that the national energy policy is ramping up the process to change the lands and waters where we live, and the cumulative effect of all of this effort has caused tremendous concern,” she said. 

The state of play 

Since Trump took office, his administration has taken several steps to open more acreage of ANWR and the NPR-A up for additional oil and gas drilling, building on an executive order signed on the first day of his presidency that focused solely on unleashing Alaskan energy resources. 

Most recently, the Department of the Interior announced it was rescinding a rule issued by the Bureau of Land Management under the Biden administration that aimed to keep 13 million acres of NPR-A off-limits to drilling operations. 

The administration has also expressed interest in doubling the amount of oil transported through the existing trans-Alaskan pipeline and constructing the Alaska LNG pipeline, which would allow for increased exports of liquefied natural gas from the North Slope to Asia. 

During a visit to the state in early June with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin, Energy Secretary Chris Wright said it would be “not a stretch at all” to quadruple the state’s energy production within the next 10 years. 

Congressional Republicans have also moved to create a pathway for more energy development through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In this bill, Republicans included provisions mandating lease sales in Alaska, particularly in the state’s Cook Inlet, NPR-A, and ANWR.  

While there is broad administration support, Caleb Jasso, a senior policy adviser with the Institute for Energy Research, said these results will likely still take some time due to bureaucratic and investment constraints. 

“I would love to see within this administration, you know, the shovel in the ground … that would be great. And I think that there’s a positive direction for that, given the push at the federal level, the openness of Alaska’s governor and various leaders,” Jasso said. 

“There’s definitely momentum in the right direction compared to the past many years, but to give a specific timeline, we would have to have more concrete pieces of understanding of what exactly all this means.” 

Others, including Rep. Nick Begich (R-AK), are a bit more optimistic. Begich told the Washington Examiner that the chances of Kaktovik getting a main road under the Trump administration are “relatively high.” 

As it moves forward, Native leaders in the North Slope wish to ensure their voice remains at the table to help encourage development when it is needed and rein it in when it may go too far. 

TRUMP ENERGY OFFICIALS VISIT ALASKA IN BID TO UNLEASH STATE’S ENERGY RESOURCES

For Gordon and Lampe, the energy Cabinet members’ visit to the region was a step in the right direction as the members of the administration held a town hall meeting with Native leaders and several tribes in the northernmost part of the state. 

“For generations, policymakers in Washington have made numerous decisions about our land without consulting us, and outside groups with no connection to the land regularly attempt to speak for us,” Lampe told the Washington Examiner. “It is vital that our self-determination on our homelands be respected by these outside groups and individuals and that our people have a place at the policymaking table going forward.”