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Fox News
a day ago
- Politics
- Fox News
'Homeland would've been stolen': AK Natives sound off on Biden energy bans as Trump officials tour tundra
FIRST ON FOX: Alaska Natives and residents of the vast North Slope Borough communities along the Arctic Ocean got a rare chance this week to directly discuss their concerns with White House officials, typically 3,500 miles away in Washington. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin joined Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy and local residents in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) as part of a multi-day visit to the oil and gas fields, workers and neighbors in the frigid but crucial region. Charles Lamp, a Native resident of Kaktovik – the main remote community within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) a few hundred miles eastward – said until President Donald Trump and the officials assembled in Utqiagvik took office, North Slope residents and their energy development hopes felt besieged by that same far-flung federal government. Lamp voiced similar concerns to those Fox News Digital had been told in the past by Alaska officials, in that environmental activists in the Lower 48 and federal officials who ideologically align with them have tried speaking for them in opposition to developing ANWR and other sites where none of those same activists live. "There's one thing that I want to bring up – we were under attack in Kaktovik by environmental groups," Lamp said. "On Day 1, President Trump told the Fish and Wildlife Department to deny their requests. And that was such an amazing thing for us to be able to see. And we were so proud of our president then because he made sure that our ancestral homelands weren't going to be stolen – and [instead] protected," Lamp said, as many in the North Slope actually support the development of their Native homelands versus cordoning them off through regulation – as they bring jobs and resources. "So I really need to bring back this immense gratitude to President Trump for that action and being able to write something that, if the other guy (Joe Biden and Kamala Harris) would have won, there's no doubt in my mind that our homeland would have been stolen and there's nothing we could have done about it," he said. "Trump had the heart and the wherewithal to be able to right this wrong." He told Burgum to invite Trump to Kaktovik to see ANWR and its "Section 1002" – the oil and gas development sector – for himself. Burgum said he believes Trump would be open to the opportunity – and that the president has already pleasantly surprised regional corporate stakeholders with his openness to questions that the oil companies felt loath to even consider asking a president. "President Trump does care super deeply about this and at a deep level," Burgum said, adding the president shocked ConocoPhillips representatives in a recent meeting when he asked what they needed to improve their North Slope operations. When the company noted improved roads would be helpful, Trump asked rhetorically why a road couldn't be built, according to Burgum. "[They] were kind of like, 'Wow, I didn't know we could ask that.'" Wright also addressed the Utqiagvik meeting, and added in separate comments that he visited the Prudhoe Bay Discovery Well – a 1960s operation that first opened Alaska to energy development and at one point represented one-quarter of U.S. oil output. "Unfortunately, the last few decades have seen a long, slow decline of North Slope oil production – not because they're running out of oil. In fact, there's an amazing amount of untapped, unproduced oil up here. It's because of federal regulation, bureaucracy. It's made it so expensive and difficult to operate," Wright said. He added that with the "Big, Beautiful, Twin Natural Gas Pipeline" ultimately constructed, Alaska could be the key to global energy security by drawing buyers in Korea and Japan away from China. "It's great to be part of history again here in the great North Slope oil fields of Alaska," Wright said. Dunleavy last week headlined a global sustainable energy conference in Anchorage, which also drew the attention of those same potential stakeholders from Asia.
Fox News
03-06-2025
- Business
- Fox News
AK lawmakers claim ‘victory' as feds begin reversal of ‘illegal' Biden rule restricting ANWR oil and gas
Alaska's congressional delegation praised President Donald Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum for starting the process of rescinding a Biden-era rule that restricted oil and gas exploration in the resource-rich Section 1002 of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Sen. Dan Sullivan said Burgum announced the move at a town hall in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow) at the northern tip of the vast state, where local natives applauded because they "understand better than anyone" why responsible oil production is key to their communities' livelihood. Sullivan called the Biden-era rule "illegal" and said it turned vast swaths of an area originally intended for domestic energy production into "de facto wilderness." "Responsible resource development has transformed the lives of the Iñupiat people, supporting the construction of clinics, gymnasiums, water infrastructure—basic amenities most Americans take for granted," Sullivan said. Burgum said his agency determined the 2024 rule exceeded the federal government's bounds under a 1976 petroleum reserve law and also creates "unnecessary barriers to responsible energy development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska." "Congress was clear: the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska was set aside to support America's energy security through responsible development," he said, adding the prior rule "prioritized obstruction over production." Rep. Nick Begich III called the decision a "major victory" and said that he will work with Trump to ensure responsible resource development. "This is a victory not only for those who support responsible development, but also those who believe in the rule of law," added Sen. Lisa Murkowski. "The 2024 management rule clearly violated the law, establishing restrictions and a presumption against development as part of the last administration's effort to turn the North Slope into one giant tract of federal wilderness," she continued. "Repealing the rule will not weaken our world-class environmental standards, but it will enable Alaska to produce more energy as Congress intended. The result will be good jobs for Alaskans, more affordable energy for America, and significant new revenues for government." In January, Gov. Mike Dunleavy told Fox News Digital that a final, congressionally-mandated sale of land for development in ANWR was set up to fail – characterizing it as a parting shot by the last administration toward the Last Frontier. "These leases should be executed in good faith along the established historical processes. And obviously, the Biden administration in the past four years has just been brutal on Alaska," he said at the time, envisioning that the Trump administration would do just as Burgum announced this week. At the time, Murkowski also said that a now-former Interior official "openly admitted" during a working group that the process with which the restrictions were set upon ANWR was done in a way to intentionally circumvent the Congressional Review Act. That law was what allowed other Senate Republicans to undo several Biden-era EPA actions last month with a simple floor vote.
Yahoo
06-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska wins lawsuit that could open Arctic refuge to oil drilling
James BrooksAlaska Beacon A federal judge in Anchorage has ruled in favor of Alaska's state-owned investment bank in a lawsuit that could clear the way for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In an order published Tuesday, Judge Sharon Gleason wrote that the U.S. Department of the Interior acted illegally when it canceled oil and gas leases held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority on land within the refuge. 'Having reviewed the parties' arguments, the court concludes that DOI was required to obtain a court order before canceling AIDEA's leases,' Gleason said in her 22-page decision. AIDEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Cori Mills, Alaska's deputy attorney general, called the decision a victory. 'The state looks forward to working with the current federal administration on fully realizing the vast potential of ANWR to grow Alaska's economy and help America's energy independence,' she said by email. 'It is unfortunate we have lost a significant amount of time litigating, instead of moving forward with field studies and development. We will continue to review the decision in more detail but it's definitely a victory.' Tuesday's order was the result of a lawsuit filed by AIDEA against the federal government last year, when the Biden administration canceled oil and gas leases that AIDEA won in a January 2021 sale. Two other companies also won leases during the sale but later surrendered them to the federal government, leaving AIDEA as the only company holding leases within the refuge's coastal plain, which is believed to hold significant oil and gas reserves, just as nearby state land does. The Biden administration claimed that the sale — conducted under the auspices of the first Trump administration — was flawed and thus illegal. It first suspended, then canceled the leases, prompting AIDEA to sue in 2024. Gleason had upheld the Biden administration's suspension order, but when it came to the cancellation, she ruled in AIDEA's favor, citing a provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that enabled the ANWR leases. That act said in part that the Interior Department 'shall manage the oil and gas program on the Coastal Plain in a manner similar to the administration of lease sales under the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976.' Gleason wrote: 'Among the NPRPA's implementing regulations is a regulation that provides that '(p)roducing leases or leases known to contain valuable deposits of oil or gas may be canceled only by court order.'' But the Interior Department didn't obtain a court order, Gleason noted. 'Accordingly, federal defendants' cancellation of AIDEA's leases was not in accordance with law because it failed to seek a court order,' she wrote. Several environmental and tribal groups sided with the federal government during the course of the lawsuit and had requested the ability to offer alternative solutions if Gleason ruled in favor of AIDEA. She turned them down, writing, 'DOI's error is serious: DOI cancelled AIDEA's leases without following the congressionally mandated procedure for doing so.' In light of that finding, she vacated the department's lease cancellation decision, saying the department — now back in the hands of the Trump administration — may decide what to do next. In a statement released last week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said he intends to open the refuge's entire 1.56 million-acre coastal plain to development, indicating that AIDEA will be given a free hand on its leases. For its part, AIDEA has said in multiple court filings that if allowed to proceed, it will conduct seismic testing and other preliminary work necessary to determine how much oil and gas lies within its leases. Among the various environmental and tribal groups that stood with the federal government in opposition to AIDEA was the Gwich'in Steering Committee, represented by attorneys from Trustees for Alaska. 'This disappointing ruling ignores the destruction oil drilling will do to our communities and only deepens our resolve in fiercely defending the coastal plain from oil and gas extraction,' said Kristen Moreland, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee. 'We will always protect the caribou, our way of life, and future generations.' The Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, Arctic Village Council, and Venetie Village Council, represented by the Native American Rights Fund, said in a statement that they will continue to oppose drilling in ANWR and that 'multiple legal and administrative pathways remain to ensure proper environmental review before any ground-disturbing activities could occur.'
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Interior secretary announces Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil leasing plans
Yereth Rosen Alaska Beacon Two months after a lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge failed to draw any bids, the Trump administration Department of the Interior said on Thursday it is taking steps to sell leases across much more territory in the refuge. All of the 1.56-million-acre refuge coastal plan will be opened to oil leasing, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. The Bureau of Land Management, an Interior agency, will make that happen, reversing Biden administration environmental protections in the area, he said. 'It's time for the U.S. to embrace Alaska's abundant and largely untapped resources as a pathway to prosperity for the Nation, including Alaskans,' Burgum said in the statement. 'For far too long, the federal government has created too many barriers to capitalizing on the state's energy potential. Interior is committed to recognizing the central role the State of Alaska plays in meeting our nation's energy needs, while providing tremendous economic opportunity for Alaskans.' The department did not release any more information about the specific steps to be taken, and no new rule proposals were issued as of Thursday afternoon. Intentions for more ANWR oil development were already declared in an Inauguration Day executive action issued by President Donald Trump called 'Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential.' They were also declared in a follow-up secretarial order that Burgum issued on Feb. 3. In addition to planning for expanded ANWR leasing, Interior's BLM is taking steps to expand oil development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, on the west side of the North Slope, Burgum said in his statement. Most of the refuge will be open to development, reversing protections that had kept about half of it off-limits, Burgum said. And the BLM will be revoking Biden administration actions that maintained protections for lands along the trans-Alaska pipeline corridor and Dalton Highway north of the Yukon River, Burgum said in his statement. Those plans were included as well in the presidential and secretarial orders issued in January and February. They would affect several Biden-era environmental policies in Alaska that Gov. Mike Dunleavy and other Trump supporters have asked the new administration to revoke. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge has been the subject of decades of debate and controversy. Alaska politicians, Inupiat organizations and other development supporters say the refuge's coastal plain could produce a new oil bonanza; environmentalists and some Indigenous tribal members say it should be protected because of its importance to the Porcupine Caribou herd — one of the few tundra caribou herds not in decline — and other Arctic natural resources. In a statement, Dunleavy called Burgum's announcement 'more great news for Alaska.' 'I want to thank President Trump and Interior Secretary Burgum 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. 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,' Dunleavy said in his statement U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, in his annual speech to the Legislature on Thursday, celebrated Burgum's announcement and praised Trump for his executive orders. 'Alaska has never seen such a positive signal directly from a U.S. president that we should pursue our vision of a state that seeks private sector wealth and job creation with a federal government that is a partner in opportunity, not a hostile opponent,' Sullivan said in the speech. That includes reinstatement of the ANWR leasing program, 'which was in the law,' Sullivan said, referring to the 2017 tax act that mandated at least two lease sales in the refuge coastal plan. Burgum's announcement also got a favorable response from Inupiat leaders on the North Slope who have supported oil development there as a vital source of revenue and jobs.. One was Charles Lampe, president of Kaktovik Iñupiat Corp., the for-profit corporation owned by the Native residents of a village at the northern edge of the refuge. Among many in Kaktovik, a village of about 270 people, oil development in the refuge coastal plain has long been viewed as a promising local opportunity. 'We applaud today's decision by DOI and Secretary Burgum, which upholds both the 2017 Tax Cuts and Job Act and overwhelming support from our community for development opportunities on the Coastal Plain,' Lampe said in a statement. 'As the only community within ANWR's 19-million-acre boundaries, we have fought for years for our right to self-determination and local economic development in our Indigenous homelands. Secretary Burgum's decision today suggests our community's voice is finally being heard in Washington.' Lampe's statement was issued by an organization called Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a coalition of North Slope municipal governments, tribes, corporations and other entities. Environmentalists criticized the Trump administration plans and said they will work to oppose them. 'If we let the Trump administration destroy Alaska's irreplaceable wild places for corporate profits and polluting fossil fuels that no one needs, the damage will be severe and long-lasting,' Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. 'Trump wants to dig, burn and dump his way across Alaska's finest wildlife refuges and national parks, giving away our public lands to put more money into the pockets of billionaires,' Freeman said. 'Alaska's most precious resources are its vast expanses of wild lands and habitat for wildlife like caribou and polar bears, and we'll keep fighting hard to protect those beautiful places.' The national Sierra Club also weighed in. 'The Sierra Club and its millions of members and supporters across the country stand with the Gwich'in and Alaska Natives in opposing these actions. We will do everything in our power to stop the giveaway and preserve our wild and special places for the next generation,' Ben Jealous, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in a statement. The Gwich'in, Indigenous tribal members from northeastern Alaska and northwestern Canada, have been among the most ardent opponents of oil development in the refuge. Meanwhile, a new report from a nonpartisan organization describes development supporters' estimates of fiscal benefits from Arctic refuge leasing as vastly exaggerated. Rather than generating more than $1 billion for the federal treasury, as predicted by development supporters, sales of oil leases in the refuge would generate only $3 million to $30 million, said the report issued Thursday by the nonprofit group Taxpayers for Common Sense. That means revenues from oil leasing in the wildlife refuge would amount to less than 0.001% of an offset to the $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that the Trump administration and Congress have proposed, the report said. 'Continuing to promote Arctic drilling under the illusion of future revenue is a waste of taxpayer time and resources,' concludes the Taxpayers for Common Sense report. The estimate is based on past data from 20 years of oil leasing on Alaska's North Slope. In 2017, the year the tax bill was passed and signed into law, the Congressional Budget Office estimated that the two lease sales it mandated would generate a total of $2.2 billion in revenues over 10 years, to be split evenly between the federal and state governments. Rather than attract a bidding rush, the two past ANWR lease sales drew no bids from any major oil companies. Bidding in the first sale, in 2021, was paltry and came mostly from the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, a state-owned development agency. The lease sale four years later drew no bids. That experience was part of the information considered in the new analysis released by Taxpayers for Common Sense. 'Including new ANWR lease sales as a revenue raiser in budget reconciliation underscores a fundamental disconnect between lofty promises and fiscal reality. The ANWR leasing program was sold as a financial boon for taxpayers, but the numbers tell a different story. Based on past lease sales, industry trends, and financial constraints, the claim that drilling in ANWR will deliver substantial revenue is misleading at best,' the report said.
Yahoo
26-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Alaska wins lawsuit that could open Arctic refuge to oil exploration
Research biologists pause among the wetlands of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain, with the Brooks Range in the background. (Photo by Lisa Hupp/USFWS) A federal judge in Anchorage has ruled in favor of Alaska's state-owned investment bank in a lawsuit that could clear the way for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In an order published Tuesday, Judge Sharon Gleason wrote that the U.S. Department of the Interior acted illegally when it canceled oil and gas leases held by the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority on land within the refuge. 'Having reviewed the parties' arguments, the court concludes that DOI was required to obtain a court order before canceling AIDEA's leases,' Gleason said in her 22-page decision. AIDEA did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but Cori Mills, Alaska's deputy attorney general, called the decision a victory. 'The state looks forward to working with the current federal administration on fully realizing the vast potential of ANWR to grow Alaska's economy and help America's energy independence,' she said by email. 'It is unfortunate we have lost a significant amount of time litigating, instead of moving forward with field studies and development. We will continue to review the decision in more detail but it's definitely a victory.' Tuesday's order was the result of a lawsuit filed by AIDEA against the federal government last year, when the Biden administration canceled oil and gas leases that AIDEA won in a January 2021 sale. Two other companies also won leases during the sale but later surrendered them to the federal government, leaving AIDEA as the only company holding leases within the refuge's coastal plain, which is believed to hold significant oil and gas reserves, just as nearby state land does. The Biden administration claimed that the sale — conducted under the auspices of the first Trump administration — was flawed and thus illegal. It first suspended, then canceled the leases, prompting AIDEA to sue in 2024. Gleason had upheld the Biden administration's suspension order, but when it came to the cancellation, she ruled in AIDEA's favor, citing a provision of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that enabled the ANWR leases. That act said in part that the Interior Department 'shall manage the oil and gas program on the Coastal Plain in a manner similar to the administration of lease sales under the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act of 1976.' Gleason wrote: 'Among the NPRPA's implementing regulations is a regulation that provides that '(p)roducing leases or leases known to contain valuable deposits of oil or gas may be canceled only by court order.'' But the Interior Department didn't obtain a court order, Gleason noted. 'Accordingly, federal defendants' cancellation of AIDEA's leases was not in accordance with law because it failed to seek a court order,' she wrote. Several environmental and tribal groups sided with the federal government during the course of the lawsuit and had requested the ability to offer alternative solutions if Gleason ruled in favor of AIDEA. She turned them down, writing, 'DOI's error is serious: DOI cancelled AIDEA's leases without following the congressionally mandated procedure for doing so.' In light of that finding, she vacated the department's lease cancellation decision, saying the department — now back in the hands of the Trump administration — may decide what to do next. In a statement released last week, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said he intends to open the refuge's entire 1.56 million-acre coastal plain to development, indicating that AIDEA will be given a free hand on its leases. For its part, AIDEA has said in multiple court filings that if allowed to proceed, it will conduct seismic testing and other preliminary work necessary to determine how much oil and gas lies within its leases. Among the various environmental and tribal groups that stood with the federal government in opposition to AIDEA was the Gwich'in Steering Committee, represented by attorneys from Trustees for Alaska. 'This disappointing ruling ignores the destruction oil drilling will do to our communities and only deepens our resolve in fiercely defending the coastal plain from oil and gas extraction,' said Kristen Moreland, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee. 'We will always protect the caribou, our way of life, and future generations.' The Native Village of Venetie Tribal Government, Arctic Village Council, and Venetie Village Council, represented by the Native American Rights Fund, said in a statement that they will continue to oppose drilling in ANWR and that 'multiple legal and administrative pathways remain to ensure proper environmental review before any ground-disturbing activities could occur.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
