Opinion - Trump has the chance and the legal tools to tap Alaska's minerals and energy
For decades, leftist environmentalist crusaders have used permitting processes and litigation to drown projects vital to Alaska's interests in red tape. But last year's Supreme Court decision in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo provides the Trump administration with a clear pathway to cutting through the bureaucratic thicket. By eliminating excessive deference to an unaccountable administrative state, the Court returned power to the political branches, handing Trump the machete he needs to slash unnecessary delays.
Take, for instance, Alaska's Ambler Mining District, home of critical minerals including gold, silver, cobalt, and billions of pounds of copper and zinc. In 2020, the Trump Administration approved permits for a 211-mile road that would link the district to Alaska's highway system, allowing for exploration and development of these important natural resources.
But upon taking office, the Biden Administration pulled the right of way permits, and then initiated a supplemental environmental impact statement under the National Environmental Policy Act permitting process. Last June, the Bureau of Land Management under Biden denied the permit that Trump had previously approved, in an act which one local publication rightly said 'could limit future resource development in Alaska.'
Apart from the fact that Native tribes and the bipartisan Alaskan congressional delegation opposed the action, the Biden Administration's denial also violated federal law. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, signed in the final days of Jimmy Carter's presidency in 1980, included a congressional finding that 'there is a need for access for surface transportation purposes' in the Ambler Mining District, and directed that 'the Secretary [of the Interior] shall permit such access.' The law even specified a streamlined permitting process, stating that 'such analysis…shall not be subject to judicial review.' Yet Biden Administration bureaucrats decided to countermand the explicit actions made by a prior Democratic Congress and Democratic President.
President Trump's Day One executive order directed his Administration to review the Biden rejection of the permit, and restore the decision made in his first term allowing the road to proceed. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum should act swiftly to reverse the actions of his predecessor and should cite both Loper Bright and the Carter-era law in doing so. Congress was very clear about its desire to promote access to the Ambler Mining District, and no unelected bureaucrat decades later should have the ability to reverse that clear intent.
More broadly, the Trump Administration can and should use similar grants of authority from Congress to steamroll the dilatory tactics of environmental activists intent on holding back our country's untapped potential. As with the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act clarified Congress' desire for energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Secretary Burgum should invoke that statute liberally, to prevent a recurrence of the illegal tactics the Biden Administration utilized over the past four years to prevent Alaska from developing its full potential.
From the lower oil and gas prices resulting from energy exploration in ANWR to the renewable batteries and defense products associated with Ambler's critical minerals, Alaska can provide the resources necessary to power our country through the 21th century — and beyond. Doing so only requires an administration dedicated to following the law, rather than thwarting it. I hope and pray that Trump will do just that.
Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, is Alaska's 12th governor.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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