Alaska governor asks Trump to roll back restrictions on oil and gas drilling
CTV
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s wish list for the incoming Trump administration includes oil and gas exploration in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reversing restrictions on logging and road-building in a temperate rainforest that provides habitat for wolves, bears and salmon.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s wish list for the incoming Trump administration includes oil and gas exploration in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and reversing restrictions on logging and road-building in a temperate rainforest that provides habitat for wolves, bears and salmon.
Dunleavy has asked President-elect Donald Trump to issue a state-specific executive order that would set in motion “critical agency actions that would restore opportunity to Alaska" in line with Trump's first administration. Dunleavy and other Republican political leaders in the state have expressed excitement about Trump's return to the White House and believe he will be more friendly to oil and gas, mineral and other resource development than President Joe Biden.
Alaska has a long history of fighting what it sees as federal overreach, particularly when it comes to decisions that hinder development of the state’s vast resources.
Dunleavy outlined his requests in a letter to Trump dated Nov. 15 and publicly released this week. He is also asking Trump to create a Cabinet-level task force that would have the Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies work together on Trump’s Alaska-specific policy goals.
The direction taken on some of the issues raised by Dunleavy has shifted dramatically from one federal administration to the next, with the policy calls often winding up in court. The debate over protections for the country’s largest national forest, the Tongass in southeast Alaska, for example, has ping-ponged back and forth since the Clinton administration.
Bridget Psarianos, staff attorney with Trustees for Alaska — which has been involved in litigation aimed at protecting places like the refuge — said many of the issues on Dunleavy's list are ones her group has worked on for decades, “and I think we're just getting prepared to continue to hold the line.”
Her group will scrutinize “any and all attempts to cut corners and expedite” projects, including drilling in the refuge, she said.
