And this one from the Washington Post:...

And this one from the Washington Post:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/03/20/alaska-drilling-trump-anwr/

The Interior Department on Thursday announced that it aims to open up millions of acres of near-pristine land in Alaska to oil drilling and allow for a new pipeline to be built across the state.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the department would allow oil and gas leases on 82 percent of the 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, overturning protections that President Joe Biden finalized last year, and will reinstate a program to permit drilling in the 1.56 million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the country’s largest preserve of its kind.

The department also will work to transfer federal land to the state to help construct a pipeline to transport liquefied natural gas for export to Asia and a road that is critical in operating a planned copper and zinc mine in northern Alaska. Nearly a year ago Biden administration officials blocked the land transfer for Ambler Road, which was slated to traverse Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, on grounds that it would harm the region’s Indigenous communities and wildlife habitat.


Politicians have wrangled for decades over developing Alaska, which boasts massive reserves of fossil fuels and minerals but also the largest areas of untouched wilderness in the United States. In several cases, Republican presidents have pushed for exploration in these vast expanses, only to have areas restricted under Democrats.

“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 a statement. “For far too long, the federal government has created too many barriers to capitalizing on the state’s energy potential.”
On taking office Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that signaled his goal of reversing Biden and “unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary energy potential.” Interior officials said these policy changes marked the first steps to implement that directive.


Environmentalists, however, criticized the move.
“Any oil drilling or any leasing is going to severely impair what’s really special about the refuge,” said Bobby McEnaney, director of land conservation at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. “The refuge is home to just an extraordinary number of species of wildlife, habitat for polar bears, for musk ox and for caribou. It’s important to a lot of Indigenous people who live up there.”
Alex Johnson, an Arctic and Alaska campaigner for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the proposed Ambler Road would cut through “one of the most spectacular intact landscapes in the entire national parks system,” including 11 major river crossings. “This order is deeply concerning for anyone who cares about national parks and wildlife in the Arctic.”


Trump has promised to “drill baby, drill” in an effort to ramp up oil and gas production in the United States to address what he has declared a “national energy emergency.” While there is considerable industry interest in developing parts of Alaska’s North Slope, including in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, oil and gas companies have largely shied away from bidding on leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In an email, Kara Moriarty, president of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, praised Burgum’s announcement “for recognizing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential and taking meaningful steps to development.” She called for a balance between “responsible development and conservation.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) welcomed the policy shift, saying in a statement, “This is wonderful news for Alaska.”


On Wednesday, Trump met with oil executives at the White House to talk about permitting and rolling back regulations. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Burgum, in taking questions, did not indicate whether the president discussed drilling in new areas.
Trump’s bid to accelerate production is part of his campaign promise to lower costs and fight inflation. Wright, who previously suggested oil prices could fall to $50 a barrel from about $70 currently, said prices were not discussed at the meeting with executives.
On Thursday, Trump also signed an executive order aimed at spurring domestic mineral production, by expediting approval for pending mining applications. The measure applies to not just critical minerals but also “uranium, copper, potash, gold, and any other element, compound or material as determined by the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC).”