By Brett Huber
Alaska is home to some of the most valuable energy and mineral resources in the world—resources vital not only to the state’s economy but to America’s energy independence and national security. Yet for years, Washington bureaucrats treated Alaska like a nature preserve, ignoring the people who live here and the enormous value our land can responsibly provide. Now, under President Trump’s leadership, and aided by Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy, that tide is turning.
No where is this more evident than what Alaska witnessed this week. For the first time anyone can remember, three cabinet secretaries made the journey here at the invitation of the Governor to give Alaska the attention its long-deserved.
The Trump administration has reasserted Alaska’s right to responsibly develop its resources, replacing federal stonewalling with a bold, America-first energy agenda. In stark contrast, the Biden administration spent four years systematically locking up our lands, kneecapping energy producers, and undermining the very projects that could strengthen the U.S. economy and global standing.
Alaska’s Abundance Ignored by Biden, Embraced by Trump
Let’s look at the numbers: Alaska holds an estimated 8.7 billion barrels of oil in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPR-A), and Prudhoe Bay remains the largest producing oil field in North America with ANWR potentially rivaling those reserves. On the critical minerals front, Alaska has over 70 known rare earth element occurrences, plus significant deposits of cobalt, graphite, and lithium—minerals vital for clean tech and national defense.
These aren’t theoretical advantages. These are strategic assets—and under Biden, they were being buried under red tape.
In 2023, the Biden administration canceled seven legally issued oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). The Biden Department of the Interior then went further—imposing new rules that effectively shut down over 13 million acres of the NPR-A, decimating potential production zones and stalling job creation in rural Alaska. “Biden’s latest fiat to lock up half the reserve, without congressional approval, jeopardizes America’s energy security,” responded Governor Dunleavy.
Meanwhile, Biden’s so-called climate agenda blocked the very minerals he claimed to need for his “green” energy transition. Projects like the Ambler Access Road and Graphite One, which could help supply domestic battery production, were stalled or undermined by his federal agencies leaving us all more dependent on Chinese supply chains.
Trump’s America-First Approach Brings Relief and Resolve
The return of President Trump has brought a dramatic course correction. Just this week, his administration announced the repeal of Biden’s restrictions on drilling in the NPR-A, restoring access to vast tracts of oil-rich federal land.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum correctly pointed out, “The NPR-A was set aside by Congress for energy production. We are simply restoring the legal balance intended by our laws.” At this year’s Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference, Energy Secretary Chris Wright reinforced that message: “Alaska’s unique position allows it to lead in both fossil fuel production and renewable energy innovation. Washington should get out of the way.”
Governor Dunleavy, who hosted the conference in Anchorage, made it clear: responsible resource development is not only possible—it is essential. Alaska can be a global leader in energy, but only if the federal government treats the state as a partner, not a problem.
Real Consequences, Real Lives
This isn’t just policy—it’s people’s lives. Alaska’s economy depends on responsible development. Federal restrictions mean fewer jobs, lower revenue, and more outmigration. They also erode national energy security at a time when geopolitical instability makes energy independence more critical than ever.
Under Biden, Alaska was pushed to the sidelines. Under Trump, Alaska is back in the game.
Alaska’s future must be built on opportunity, not obstruction. The Trump administration is empowering Alaska to unlock its vast resources and reclaim its role in powering America. In contrast, the Biden administration left a legacy of missed opportunity, misguided priorities, and economic harm.
It’s time to stop treating Alaska like a political bargaining chip and start treating it like the energy powerhouse it is. With the right leadership, like that of Governor Dunleavy and President Trump, Alaska can drive America’s energy resurgence—and secure its place at the center of the nation’s future.
Brett Huber is the Alaskan representative for Power The Future, bringing over 30 years of expertise in public policy and energy issues. With extensive experience in the Alaska Legislature, he served as Policy Director in the Governor’s office and as Chairman of the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission. His deep understanding of Alaska’s political and energy landscape makes him a key advocate for the state’s energy future.
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
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The Trans-Alaska Pipeline System is a VERY valuable piece of infrastructure.
It should be kept nearly full of crude oil for the rest of its operational life.
Any other plan will result in massive amounts of waste. Of course, that is what usually happens when you place “green” considerations ahead of sound fiscal and engineering practices!
We can’t just drill our way to energy independence..
Oh, wait.
When I graduated college and joined Exxon in 1978, there were engineers there who had been involved in the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which had been started up in 1977. Exxon had been part of the joint venture for construction and operation. Quite a project! And there was a lot of attention to environmental concerns. We need to get past the misguided “climate” agenda and do big things again with oil, coal, gas, nuclear, mining, steel, etc. – you get the point.
As an approximation, the Green Blob is
opposed to any development, anywhere.
It is one of the great contradictions of our time that “green” support for development is reserved for the really bad ideas like offshore wind, cutting down forests for solar farms, BESS, etc. We need to wake up to the fact that fossil fuels, overall, have a much smaller overall footprint on the environment.
Here in the UK we cut down much of our forests long ago for shipbuilding etc. Now we a ‘cutting down’ on our agricultural land by building wind farms and in particular solar farms on prime agricultural land . The county of Lincolnshire is at the forefront of this change in ‘farming’ but plenty of others are following them.
They are only “really bad ideas” to thinking people, especially those with some technical background, who actually analyze the ideas rationally.
Let’s not forget the offshore oil under Alaska’s Arctic Ocean shallow, and by far the world’s largest, continental shelf. The Chukchi Sea, for example, was assessed to harbor over 600 billion barrels of oil. That is 600 billion, not 6 billion. Some estimates of oil under the Chukchi Sea are far smaller and appear to be written to suppress interest in Arctic drilling. Regardless of the low estimates, Norway and Russia are drilling on their Arctic continental shelves with great success. For example, the Berkut oil rig has been operating in the Okhotsk Sea under similar sea ice conditions and is extracting ~34 million barrels of oil annually and 25 billion cubic feet of NG. The Russian assessment is that 128 billion barrels lies in just that limited region. 100 Berkuts would require 50 years to deplete the Russian reserve (at a profit of $100s of billions) and the Chukchi Sea reserve would require 200 years with 100 such rigs. It would require some time to construct 100 Berkuts.
The Lucius rig in the GOM (or GOA) extracts about what the Russian rig does, but in 7000 feet of water and in the face of hurricanes. Apparently, we are not afraid of great depths and hurricanes, but cannot withstand the cold and compete in Alaska?
“…and Prudhoe Bay remains the largest producing oil field in North America with ANWR potentially rivaling those reserves.”
I remember back in the 1990s, a common argument used by the left/Democrats against developing ANWR was “it would take ten years before we would see any oil produced there!”, which was neither true nor a reason to not develop a resource. Even if it were true, to voters and on the political election cycle horizon, a decade was thought to be too far away to worry about.
That was thirty years ago.
“Alaska holds an estimated 8.7 billion barrels of oil in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska (NPR-A), and Prudhoe Bay remains the largest producing oil field in North America with ANWR potentially rivaling those reserves. On the critical minerals front, Alaska has over 70 known rare earth element occurrences, plus significant deposits of cobalt, graphite, and lithium—minerals vital for clean tech and national defense.”
And to think when we acquired Alaska, it was called Seward’s Folly…
‘”Seward’s Folly” is a term used to describe the purchase of Alaska by the United States from Russia in 1867. It was initially met with ridicule and skepticism by many Americans, who saw it as a pointless and costly transaction.’
Government authority to block development should be severely restricted. Government’s authority should be used to insure development proceeds responsibly. By this I mean government at every level national, state, county and city. None should have the power to interfere or halt development but rather see to it that development moves forward in the best possible manner.
As hell fighter, Red Adair said,
“The good Lord put oil and gas there for us to find and use, and we’d better do it.”
Good piece, Brett.
The trick in keeping oil in TAPS is that it needs somewhere between 600 – 700k bbl/day to simply keep the lights on. The green game has been to slowly strangle throughput so as to push the bbl/day below 500 k and strangle it.
OTOH, we can right now, today, jack that up above 1,500 bbl/day by embracing GTLs. You then batch ship them down TAPS with crude and separate them with a topping plant at Valdez.
GTLs are pretty interesting, in that the product, syn diesel, is salable on both sides of the Pacific Rim, able to make money above $40/bbl crude price. They are even more interesting, in that once you get into the GTL business, you have to create the infrastructure for CTLs which will use the same distribution network. Most of Alaska’s coal is north of the Brooks Range in western Alaska.
Final piece of the puzzle is that there is as much oil in ANWR, offshore, and NPR-A individually as there was in Prudhoe. Alaska had a lot of oil. It has even more, all of which has known locations. The only thing in our way is the government. Cheers-