JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) 鈥� President expansive executive order aimed at boosting oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in Alaska is being cheered by state political leaders who see new fossil fuel development as critical to Alaska's economic future and criticized by environmental groups that see the proposals as worrying in the face of a .
The signed on Trump's first day in office Monday, is consistent with a wish list submitted by Alaska shortly after Trump's election. It seeks, among other things, to open to oil and gas drilling an area of the pristine considered sacred to the Indigenous Gwich'in, undo limits imposed by the Biden administration on drilling activity in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska on the North Slope and on logging and road-building in a temperate rainforest that provides habitat for wolves, bears and salmon.
In many ways, the order seeks to revert to policies that were in place during Trump's first term.
But Trump 鈥渏ust can't wave a magic wand and make these things happen,鈥� said Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity. Environmental laws and rules must be followed in attempts to unravel existing policies, and legal challenges to Trump's plans are virtually certain, he said.
鈥淲e鈥檙e ready and looking forward to the fight of our lives to keep Alaska great, wild and abundant,鈥� Freeman said.
What's planned for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge?
The order seeks to reverse a Biden administration decision issued as part of the in the refuge's coastal plain. Major oil companies didn't participate in the sale, held in early 2021 in the waning days of Trump's first term. The leases went to . that also won leases in that sale had earlier given them up.
Trump's order calls for to 鈥渋nitiate additional leasing鈥� and issue all permits and easements necessary for oil and gas exploration and development to occur. Gwich鈥檌n leaders oppose drilling on the coastal plain, citing its importance to a caribou herd they rely upon. Leaders of the I帽upiaq community of Kaktovik, which is within the refuge, support drilling and have expressed hope their voices will be heard in the Trump administration after being frustrated by former President Joe Biden.
This comes weeks , mandated by a 2017 federal law, yielded no bids. The law required that two lease sales be offered by the end of 2024. The state earlier this month sued the Interior Department and federal officials, alleging among other things that the terms of the recent sale were too restrictive.
What do Alaska political leaders say?
Alaska leaders cheered Trump's order, which was titled, 鈥淯nleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential.鈥�
鈥淚t is morning again in Alaska,鈥� Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan declared.
鈥淧resident Trump delivered on his first day in office!鈥� Dunleavy said on social media. 鈥淭his is why elections matter.鈥�
Alaska has a history of fighting perceived overreach by the federal government that affects the state's ability to develop its natural resources. State leaders complained during the Biden administration that efforts to further develop oil, gas and minerals were being unfairly hampered, though they also scored a major win with the approval in 2023 of a in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Environmentalists are in court.
Dunleavy has repeatedly argued that development of Alaska's vast resources are critical for its future, and he's billed the underground storage of carbon and carbon offset programs as a way to diversify revenues while continuing to develop oil, gas and coal and pursue timber programs.
The state faces economic challenges: oil production, long its lifeblood, is a fraction of what it once was, in part due to aging fields, and for more than a decade, more people have left Alaska than have moved here.
What happens now?
Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the conservation group Center for Western Priorities, called Trump's order an 鈥渆verything, everywhere, all-at-once order鈥� that seeks to undo measures that in some cases it took the Biden administration years to enact.
鈥淭he length of time it would take the Interior Department to accomplish everything in that executive order is at least one term鈥檚 worth, maybe two. And even then, you would need the science on your side when it all comes back. And we know in the case of Alaska specifically, the science is not on the side of unlimited drilling," he said, pointing to climate concerns and the warming Arctic.
have experienced the impacts of , including thinning sea ice, coastal erosion and thawing permafrost that undermines infrastructure.
Erik Grafe, an attorney with the group Earthjustice, called the Arctic 鈥渢he worst place to be expanding oil and gas development. No place is good because we need to be contracting and moving to a green economy and addressing the climate crisis.鈥�
Becky Bohrer, The Associated Press
