One of the plethora of executive orders President Donald Trump signed on his first day in office aimed at boosting oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in Alaska. While state political leaders are cheering the move, environmental groups see it as worrying.
State political leaders see development of the fossil fuel industry as critical to Alaska’s economic future.
“What do they mean?” Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy said on X about the executive orders. “It means Alaska is back in business!”
“It means a timber industry in the Tongass National Forest can once again take place. It means Alaska can begin the process [of] finally getting its remain[ing] acreage of land from the federal government.” He went on to say that the move creates the possibility of “thousands and thousands of jobs.”
President Donald Trump aims to contribute to the national economy by utilizing Alaska’s natural resources, which include extensive deposits of oil, natural gas, and various other minerals. (Murat Usubali/Anadolu)
The order, titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” seeks to open to oil and gas drilling an area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that is considered sacred to the Indigenous Gwich’in. It also aims to undo limits imposed by the Biden administration on drilling activity in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska on the North Slope, and reverse restrictions on logging and road-building in a temperate rainforest.
Gwich’in leaders oppose drilling on the coastal plain, citing its importance to a caribou herd they rely upon. Leaders of the Iñupiaq 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.
The snow-covered coastal plain area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Lindsey Wasson)
“It is morning again in Alaska,” Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan posted to X Monday evening. A subsequent post from the senator encouraged Alaskans to read President Trump’s executive order.
The Kaktovik Lagoon and the Brooks Range mountains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Lindsey Wasson, File)
Cooper Freeman, Alaska director at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Associated Press that the president “just can’t wave a magic wand and make these things happen.” Environmental laws and rules must be followed, and legal challenges to Trump’s plans are virtually certain, he said.
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“We’re ready and looking forward to the fight of our lives to keep Alaska great, wild and abundant,” Freeman said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
