By RICK WHITBECK | POWER THE FUTURE
Even before Joe Biden took up residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January 2021, there was clear writing on the wall for the damage his administration would do to Alaska’s energy community.
We just didn’t know how bad it was going to get.
After all, his campaign was riddled with promises to the radical environmental movement. Two were going to be exceptionally impactful to our state: a first-day ban of oil and gas leasing on federal lands and in federal waters.
Then, an immediate closing of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to development, even after Congress had authorized its opening in 2017 and after its initial lease sale had been held and winning bidders contracted with in early 2021.
When the eco-Left saw its champions named to Cabinet-level positions in the Departments of Energy, Interior, Transportation and the EPA, astute Alaskans knew it was going to be a long four years.
And we were correct.
The Biden administration has – to date – carried out over 55 administrative and executive orders related to resource development projects or opportunities in Alaska. As tracked by U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan, only two have been what could even be considered “wins” for the state, and one came with a huge trade-off.
When ConocoPhillips’ Willow project was approved back in March, the environmental movement acted like team Biden had committed eco-treason.
In fact, while the re-authorization of Willow was something to celebrate, it came with a series of exceptionally damaging long-term trade-offs. First, the project was scaled back from five drill pads to three, which will limit the amount of oil that can be recovered.
The much bigger impact will come from the 13.8 million on-shore, and 2 million off-shore acres that were ordered off-limits to any future development efforts. Those lands and waters all are adjacent to where oil and gas deposits have already been discovered. How many jobs and how much more revenue to local, state and federal coffers were sacrificed in the name of “going green”?
There have been significant efforts from radical environmental organizations to thwart other development projects across our state, and they’ve been given a boost from Team Biden.
The Ambler mining district is known to be rich in copper and critical and strategic minerals that are needed if the country is to establish domestic supplies to help us ‘go green’ and transition from fossil fuels to renewables. While that idea in and of itself is nonsensical, so is the ongoing fight over accessing the Ambler district via a congressionally authorized corridor.
From the cries of “social and environmental justice” emanating from the Left, you’d think the plan was to build a 10-lane superhighway through the most pristine area of Earth. In fact, the 211-mile, 2-lane gravel road will be strictly controlled and private, allowing only for extracted components to reach the Dalton Highway and the rest of Alaska’s road system.
The Pebble Mine in Southwest Alaska is the western world’s largest deposit of copper, which faces a worldwide shortage under the Left’s ‘green’ agenda. The rabid nature of the environmental movement against Pebble has been going on for nearly two decades. Even after the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released its final environmental impact statement providing an unabashed thumbs-up for the project, the mine’s permits were disallowed for ‘public interest’ reasons that reeked of political shenanigans.
Next, the EPA vetoed the project, citing watershed regulations that were just overturned by the Supreme Court in Sackett vs EPA. It will be interesting to see what narrative the Left uses to attempt to deny Pebble going forward. They certainly won’t be based on facts, since the science is clear that the mine’s plan for development is sound.
If past is prologue, the next 17 months will see the Biden administration attempt to circumvent federal laws, the Supreme Court and science to build its case for protecting the planet at any cost. Those efforts will continue to land Alaska in the crosshairs of radical environmentalists, their wealthy ideologue donors from the Lower 48 and the small-yet-vocal minority of Alaskans who would rather see development efforts cease altogether.
If you want to help counter those misguided efforts, I invite you to contact me at [email protected]. Let’s talk about building a coalition of rational, like-minded Alaskans who will work for a brighter, better energy future. We can – and must – do that for the sake and future of the Great Land.
Rick Whitbeck is the Alaska State Director for Power The Future, a national nonprofit organization that advocates for American energy jobs. In addition to emailing him at [email protected], you can follow him on Twitter @PTFAlaska.
