Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has announced several actions to open up Alaska for increasing drilling, fulfilling President Donald Trump’s calls to realize what the administration has described as the state’s untapped energy potential.
Thursday afternoon, Burgum detailed three main actions the department would be taking to expand exploration and development opportunities for the fossil fuel industry in Alaska.
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This includes reopening up to 82% of the National Petroleum Reserve, a roughly 23-million-acre area located in the Alaskan Northern Slope Borough.
Burgum said the Interior Department also plans to reinstate a program ensuring the entire 1.56-million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is available for oil and gas leasing.
Additionally, the department is moving forward with revoking withdrawals along the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Corridor and Dalton Highway north of the Yukon River in order to convey the lands to the state and pave the way for future pipeline projects.
The actions come two months after Trump signed an executive order calling on his administration to boost oil and gas development in the 49th state.
“The State of Alaska holds an abundant and largely untapped supply of natural resources including, among others, energy, mineral, timber, and seafood,” the order read. “Unlocking this bounty of natural wealth will raise the prosperity of our citizens while helping to enhance our Nation’s economic and national security for generations to come.”
The order called on the United States to “fully avail” itself to Alaska’s lands and resources, such as through supporting projects exporting liquefied natural gas.
For years, Alaska has taken center stage in the partisan debate over increased domestic drilling, particularly in the ANWR region.
The Trump and Biden administrations have taken nearly opposite stances on leasing in the refuge, with Trump having approved around nine lease sales in the region during his first presidency. While two of those sales were canceled by bidding companies themselves, the Biden administration reviewed and suspended the remaining seven.
In one of the Biden administration’s final actions in January, the Bureau of Land Management held a lease sale in ANWR that failed to receive any bids. Democrats and environmentalists argued that the sale was evidence for the oil and gas industry losing interest in drilling in the Alaskan refuge. State officials, however, claimed that how the auction was set up purposefully restricted future development.
Alaskan Gov. Mike Dunleavy has since celebrated the Interior Department’s Thursday actions, calling it “great news” for the state.
“I want to thank @realDonaldTrump and @SecretaryBurgum for their commitment to work on behalf of Alaska to ensure that our great state and its resources can continue to be a solution for many of America’s challenges,” Dunleavy wrote in a post to X. “The news today will provide more investment opportunities, more jobs, and a better future for Alaskans. We look forward to our continued work with President Trump and his administration to move Alaska and our country forward.”
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Republican Congressman Nick Begich also took to social media to praise the announcement.
“My office has engaged with the Administration early on to make these projects a priority, and I will continue to lead efforts in Congress to codify these actions – ensuring that future Administrations cannot stand in the way of Alaska’s energy future and prosperity,” Begich wrote. “President Trump understands that Alaska is the KEY to restoring American energy dominance, and I stand ready to work with his Administration to continue fighting for Alaska.”