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VOLUME 2 | ISSUE 4 | FALL 2025 UNLEASHING POTENTIAL OF ALASKA TAKING SHAPE
Department of Interior makes good on helping spur new development BY TIM BRADNER SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR DOUG BURGUM HAS FOLLOWED UP ON PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S COMMITMENT TO UNLEASH ALASKA’S ENER- GY RESOURCES. In late October, the Secretary announced actions aimed at boosting energy development and land and resource management in Alaska. Included were steps to reopen oil and gas leasing on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and complet- ing right-of-way permits for the Ambler Road. In addition, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management has taken the first steps in resuming oil and gas leasing in the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve Alaska, asking companies to identi- fy areas they are interested in in the large unleased areas of the NPR-A. The BLM will presumably follow up with a schedule for new leasing. Alaska holds some of the most promising untapped energy re- sources in the United States and will play a critical role in strength- ening national energy security, Burgum said. In another action, the Burgum ordered the Interior Department to move forward with a controversial land exchange that would allow construction of an access road connecting King Cove, on the Alaska Peninsula, with an airport at Cold Bay to allow medical evacuations. This is a significant action because conservation groups have fought the King Cove road for years because of the precedent it would set in building a road through federally designated wilderness. In the Coastal Plain of ANWR, the Interior Department has issued a new record of decision reopening all 1.56 million acres of the Coastal Plain to oil and gas leasing — reversing the previous administration’s 2024 plan that restricted development to a mini- mum amount of acreage. This will set the stage for new leasing in ANWR, offering more acreage and new terms. The Interior Department is also restoring leases to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), a state agency that secured leases in a 2021 ANWR lease sale which were then canceled by President Joe Biden’s Interior Secretary Deb Haa- land. That decision was overturned by an Alaska federal court in a lawsuit filed by AIDEA. AIDEA will now be able to begin explora- tion of its leases. In the NPR-A, the BLM’s ”call for nominations” are for tracts to be offered in a lease sale ordered for this winter in the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the tax and spending reform act passed by Con- gress. This will be the first lease sale since 2019 in the NPR-A. Large areas in the northeast part of the reserve previously leased led to the discovery and development of the small GMT-1 and GMT-2
projects, both producing. The larger Willow discovery, also in this area, is now in con- struction and due to start production in 2029. North Slope Inupiat leaders, including those in Kaktovik vil- lage, voiced support for the ANWR and NPR-A actions. “Developing ANWR’s Coastal Plain is vital for our future," said Mayor Nathan Gordon Jr. of Kaktovik, a North Slope community within the refuge. "Taxation of development infrastructure in our region funds essential services across the North Slope, including water and sewer systems to clinics, roads and first responders." On the Ambler Road, the Bureau of Land Management and the National Park Service have reissued the necessary right-of-way permits for the establishment of the road. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers permit has also been reissued. These actions reverse another decision by former Secretary Haaland in cancelling the permits after she recommended a “no action” alternative in an En- vironmental Impact Statement prepared earlier for the road. The road project is also led by the state’s Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority. In an additional action, the department conveyed nearly 23,600 acres near the Ambler Mining District to the State of Alaska, com- pleting state land selections in the area and advancing state control over regional land use and resource development. Photo by Judy Patrick The ongoing Willow project in the NPR-A is due to start production in 2029.
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ALASKA RESOURCE REVIEW FALL 2025
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