Alex DeMarban | (TNS) Anchorage Daily News, Alaska
Major Alaska resource projects, and the land they could be built on, may be at stake in the presidential election.
They include drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and elsewhere in Alaska, logging in the Tongass National Forest, and cutting a 200-mile road through Alaska wilderness to access the Ambler mining district.
President Joe Biden’s administration has put the brakes on those and other major Alaska resource development projects, reversing efforts by former President Donald Trump to advance those initiatives.
Trump, with his aggressive focus on resource extraction, can be expected to renew his efforts in Alaska if he wins office, former officials say. But they add that it won’t be easy to reverse many of Biden’s actions, especially if Trump overhauls the federal workforce needed to properly make changes, they say.
If Vice President Kamala Harris wins, she’ll likely retain many of Biden’s actions in Alaska, they say. But her administration could still be dealing with major Alaska issues, such as a second oil and gas lease sale in the 19.6-million-acre Arctic refuge, they say.
The election also raises questions about the fate of other perennial Alaska projects, such as the Pebble mineral prospect that was stopped by the Environmental Protection Agency last year, or the giant Willow oil field that was approved by the Biden administration.
For years, Alaska’s big projects and land battles have been subject to shifting politics, depending on which party’s candidate occupies the White House. The back-and-forth has a chilling effect on investment in the state, making it difficult for companies to know whether a prospect has any chance of winning federal approval, resource advocates say.
Andrew Mergen, a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and retired Justice Department attorney who has handled litigation on major Alaska land issues, said the state plays an important political role in presidential elections because it captures the American imagination.
“For people who are Democrats, it’s the incredible natural value and parks and animals, and people love that,” he said. “And for people on the Republican bench, it looks like there’s a lot of resources and a lot of ways to make money.”
“But I do think that a lot of these disputes are maybe targeted about getting the base up, and whether that base is motivating environmental groups or motivating red-state voters, that’s part of what’s going on,” he said.
More Arctic drilling under Trump?
Trump has promised to “drill, baby, drill” on Day One of a second term.
He likes to tout the oil and gas potential in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, though with extreme exaggeration. He has said he would restart drilling there.
The former Trump administration in its closing days issued the first-ever oil and gas leases in the refuge, after a lease sale there generated little interest.
Biden, on his first day as president, began taking steps that later led to the cancellation of the leases in 2023.
William Perry Pendley, former acting director of the Bureau of Land Management under Trump, said he thinks Trump should lift the …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
