Interior Secretary Doug Burgum tours Katmai National Park and Kenai Cook Inlet energy sites

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum visited Katmai National Park in on June 4, two days before the 113th anniversary of the 1912 eruption of Novarupta, the largest explosive volcanic event in the 20th Century.

From there, Burgum travels to the Kenai Peninsula on Thursday morning, where the proposed terminus of the Alaska LNG pipeline is planned, and he is scheduled to visit Hilcorp’s natural gas drilling operations in Cook Inlet.

Harvest Alaska, a Hilcorp affiliate, has plans to convert a shuttered LNG export facility into an import terminal in Nikiski until more natural gas can come online that is sourced in Alaska. Oil was first discovered in the Kenai Peninsula in 1957 by the Richfield Oil Corporation at the Swanson River field, about 20 miles northeast of Kenai. This marked the first significant commercial oil discovery in Alaska, leading to the development of the state’s modern oil industry.

Chugach Electric Association, the state’s largest electric utility, is in discussions to purchase imported gas from the facility, which could help stabilize regional energy supplies. Hilcorp, the primary gas producer in the Cook Inlet, has said it cannot meet future demand beyond existing contracts, and delays of permits during the Biden Administration has put the greater population of Alaska at risk of freezing or burning wood to stay warm in winters. The proposed import facility in Nikiski is one near-term solution to bridge the impending supply gap. The Alaska LNG project is another solution, but is at least a few years away from producing natural gas for Alaskans.

Secretary Burgum’s visit aligns with the Trump Administration’s broader strategy of enhancing energy development on federal lands. On President Donald Trump’s first day in office, he signed an Alaska-specific executive order to get energy going again from Alaska’s resource-rich oil and gas areas.

Burgum has spent the entire week in Alaska, including meetings in Anchorage, a rally with oil workers on the North Slope, a sit-down with anti-Trump leaders from the Alaska Federation of Natives, and being a keynote guest at Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s Alaska Sustainable Energy Conference.

Burgum’s visit has touched the major energy regions in Alaska, from the North Slope to the Kenai, while also reinforcing the federal role in preserving Alaska’s parks and natural history.

While in Utqiagvik, Burgum announced the rollback of punishing regulatory decisions by the Biden Administration, opening up the petroleum reserve for leases, a huge announcement for Alaska that was welcomed by Gov. Dunleavy, Sen. Dan Sullivan, and Congressman Nick Begich.

“For the last four years, Alaska has been punished by the Biden administration’s radical, America-last energy agenda. Under [President Trump], we’re changing course and bringing in an energy renaissance that utilizes Alaska’s resources instead of burying them under red tape – that includes reversing Biden’s reckless rule that closed oil and gas development in the Reserve,” he said.

This was Burgum’s first major trip to Alaska since being confirmed as Interior Secretary earlier this year.