By james art 
President Donald Trump’s expansive executive order aimed at boosting oil and gas drilling, mining and logging in Alaska is being welcomed by the state’s political leaders, who see the development of new fossil fuels as critical to the state’s economic future, and criticized by environmentalists. groups who see the proposals as alarming in the face of a warming climate.
The order, signed on Trump’s first day in office on Jan. 20, is in line with a wish list presented by Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy shortly after Trump was elected. He seeks, among other things, to open to oil and gas drilling an area of the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge considered sacred to the indigenous Gwich’in people, to lift restrictions imposed by the Biden administration on drilling in the National Petroleum reservation-Alaska on the North Slope and reverse restrictions on logging and road construction in a temperate rainforest that provides habitat for wolves, bears, and salmon.
An oil pipeline in Alaska’s remote North Slope.
Kyle T. Perry, Adobe Stock
In many ways, the order seeks to return to policies that were in place during Trump’s first term.
But Trump “just can’t wave a magic wand and make these things happen,” said Cooper Freeman, Alaska director of the Center for Biological Diversity. Environmental laws and regulations must be upheld in attempts to unravel existing policies, and legal challenges to Trump’s plans are almost certain, he said.
“We are ready and looking forward to the fight of our lives to keep Alaska great, wild and bountiful,” Freeman said.
What is planned for the asylum?
The order seeks to overturn a decision by the Biden administration canceling seven leases issued as part of the first-ever oil and gas sale in the coastal plain of the refuge. Major oil companies were not involved in the sale, which took place in early 2021. in the final days of Trump’s first term. The leases went to a government corporation. Two small businesses that also won leases in this sale earlier have relinquished them.
The village of Kaktovik is seen Oct. 14 on the edge of Barter Island in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Lindsey Wasson, Associated Press
Trump’s order calls on the Secretary of the Interior to “initiate additional leasing” and issue all permits and easements necessary to conduct oil and gas exploration and development.
Gwich’in leaders oppose drilling in the coastal plain, citing its importance to the caribou herd on which they rely. Leaders of the Inupiaq community in Kaktovik, which is within the refuge, support the drilling and hope their voices will be heard in the Trump administration after being let down by former President Joe Biden.
It comes weeks after a second lease sale mandated by a 2017 federal law resulted in no bids. The law requires two lease sales to be offered by the end of 2024. The state sued the Interior Department and federal officials this month, arguing among other things that the terms of the recent sale were too restrictive.
A herd of caribou migrates to the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska.
US Fish and Wildlife Service
What are Alaskan leaders saying?
Alaska leaders welcomed Trump’s order, titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential.”
“It’s morning again in Alaska,” said Republican U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan.
“President Trump spoke on his first day in office!” Dunleavy said on social media. “That’s why elections matter.”
Alaska has a history of fighting federal government efforts that affect the state’s ability to develop its natural resources. State leaders have complained during the Biden administration that efforts to further develop oil, gas and minerals have been unfairly hindered, even though they scored a major victory with the 2023 approval. of a large oil project known as Willow in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. Environmentalists are fighting that approval in court.
Dunleavy argues that developing Alaska’s vast resources is critical to its future, and he touts underground carbon storage and carbon offset programs as a way to diversify revenue while continuing to develop oil, gas and coal and pursue timber programs.
The state faces economic challenges: Oil production is a fraction of what it used to be, in part because of aging fields, and for more than a decade more people have left Alaska than moved here.
Drilling rig on Alaska’s North Slope.
Mark Thiessen, Associated Press
What’s going on now?
Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the conservation group Center for Western Priorities, called Trump’s order “an everything, everywhere, all at once order” that seeks to undo measures that in some cases took years for the Biden administration to apply.
“The time it will take the Department of the Interior to implement everything in this executive order is worth at least one term, maybe two. And even then, you’ll need science on your side when it all comes back. And we know, specifically in the case of Alaska, the science is not on the side of unlimited drilling,” he said, citing climate concerns and a warming Arctic.
Communities have experienced the impacts of climate change, including thinning sea ice, coastal erosion, and thawing permafrost that undermines infrastructure.
Eric Grafe, an attorney with the group Earthjustice, called the Arctic “the worst place to expand oil and gas development. Neither place is good because we need to make contracts and move to a green economy and deal with the climate crisis.”
