Alaska Officials Hail 'Night and Day' Shift Under Trump Energy Policies

Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy and U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan said Tuesday that federal energy policy has shifted dramatically under the Trump administration, enabling major resource projects across the state after years of restrictions.

Speaking at the Alaska Energy Conference in Anchorage, the officials said the Trump administration issued a day-one executive order specifically for Alaska and has maintained direct engagement on key projects including a proposed natural gas pipeline, the King Cove Road, and the Ambler Road. Sullivan said the Biden administration imposed what he called 70 executive orders trying to restrict Alaska development. Dunleavy separately referenced what he said was a sheet of paper Sullivan used to carry listing upwards of 80 federal sanctions against the state.

Sullivan said the Biden restrictions are gone. He called them an attempt to crush the state.

Dunleavy said the Biden administration imposed restrictions on lease sales, forest access, and infrastructure projects despite Alaska's statehood compact requiring resource development to fund state operations. He said more than 60 percent of Alaska's 222 million acres is federal land, making federal cooperation essential.

The governor said Interior Secretary Doug Burgum called him on New Year's Day to discuss Alaska projects and has made multiple trips to the state since taking office. Dunleavy said President Trump personally monitors progress on the gas pipeline and road projects.

Dunleavy called Trump the best president for Alaska in history.

Sullivan announced that the Pitcairn oil field began producing oil and is now generating 80,000 barrels per day. He said the Willow project in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska has been built from a gravel pad to what he called a medium-sized Alaska city in one year.

The senator said the federal government completed the largest lease sale in the history of the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska. He said Congress secured 10 years of mandatory lease sales through the Working Families Tax Cuts Act, legislation he said he led in the Senate. Sullivan said he also led passage of a December law that removed a Biden-era regulation restricting development in the reserve and prohibited federal agencies from reimposing similar rules.

Sullivan said he led the effort to pass the bill in the Senate. He said the law ripped the Biden regulation out by the roots and said no federal agency can re-regulate in that area.

Sullivan said the White House created a Western Alaska energy task force to address diesel supply and pricing challenges in rural communities. He said Secretary Burgum announced the task force at a community event in Fairbanks after Sullivan requested White House coordination on rural energy issues.

Sullivan thanked Burgum for announcing the task force. He said he had been asking the White House to create it, and they acted quickly. The task force will help address challenges in rural Alaska on the price of diesel and getting diesel supplies.

Randy Ruaro, executive director of the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, said the agency has approved nearly $400 million in project funding over the past nine months for a number of projects, citing examples such as Alyeschem, ANWR, and the Ambler Road. He said workers from rural Native communities are earning $70 per hour on the Ambler Road project with paychecks reaching $6,000 to $10,000. Ruaro said the jobs help Alaska communities beyond financial returns by providing employment in rural areas.

Dunleavy said the state legislature must act on a payment-in-lieu-of-taxes proposal to advance the proposed Alaska liquefied natural gas pipeline. He said the project would provide the cheapest energy possible for Alaska and create jobs while addressing declining natural gas supplies in Cook Inlet. The governor said school and hospital utility rates would drop dramatically under the gas pipeline plan.

Dunleavy said the payment-in-lieu-of-taxes proposal is the most important thing that can happen in this session. He called it the largest project in Alaska history, probably the largest in the Arctic and the Pacific.

The governor said Trump first supported Alaska projects during his initial term from 2017 to 2021, when the administration worked on the King Cove Road, lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reopening the Tongass National Forest to timber harvests, and a presidential permit for a railroad between Alaska and Canada.

Dunleavy said he was elected in 2017 and came into office in 2018. He said he was able to work with President Trump and his administration for those two years, and they did incredible things. The administration started work on the King Cove Road issue. It worked on lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It tried to get the Tongass National Forest back as a working forest. It gave Alaska a presidential permit to build a railroad between Alaska and Canada.

Dunleavy said that after Trump was reelected, on day one the administration issued an executive order focused entirely on Alaska. He said it was one of the first actions, if not the first, and that no other state in history has received a dedicated executive order for resource development.

Stephen Cox, Alaska Attorney General, said he is working on federal partnerships and execution of the Alaska executive order. He said many barriers to development are not about policy but about execution, including layers of process, overlapping jurisdictions, and slow-moving systems. Cox said federal officials are working to help position Alaska to move projects forward under existing law.

Sullivan said the natural gas pipeline project has more momentum than at any point in its nearly 50-year history, driven in part by declining gas supplies in Southcentral Alaska and Cook Inlet. He said the federal government is fully supporting the project and he has worked with foreign allies in Asia to secure off-take agreements. He said the Alaska legislature must act to maintain momentum on the project.

The senator said Alaska workers built the Willow and Pitcairn projects in temperatures of 40 degrees below zero during winter darkness using ice roads. He said the projects demonstrate the capability of Alaska's construction workforce.