Green groups are suing to block Alaskan fossil fuel development after the Trump administration opened new lands for drilling, reversing Biden-era assaults on the Last Frontier.
President Donald Trump signed two Congressional Review Acts (CRA) to unleash Alaskan energy late Thursday night. Also on Thursday, Earthjustice filed a lawsuit on behalf of other green groups to overturn the Trump administration’s approval of a ConocoPhillips Alaska drilling plan located in the North Slope.
Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic, an Alaskan native environmental group whose founder’s background is in “environmental justice organizing” is a listed plaintiff. The Center for Biological Diversity and The Wilderness Society are also fighting the Department of the Interior in hopes of closing development in the region.
Trump signed H.J. Res. 106 and H.J. Res. 131 into law, both of which Republican Alaska Rep. Nick Begich introduced. The CRAs nixed a Biden-era plan that shuttered 13 million acres of potential energy production and a record of decision blocking oil and gas proliferation in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s Coastal Plain (ANWR), also on Alaska’s North Slope.
“When we unlock Alaska, we are strengthening America’s national security and economic posture in this generation and for generations to come,” Begich told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “These bills are not isolated. They are representative of a long-term strategy to rebuild our energy strength, reconstruct our critical mineral inventory, and ensure that America — not China — controls the supply chains that power our economy.”
“This Administration is demonstrating — with action — that they understand Alaska’s value for ensuring our nation’s long-term economic independence and strategic self-determination. Alaska’s energy reserves, its critical minerals, its geography – they provide an edge that no other single state in the union is able to provide,” Begich told the DCNF.
As America’s energy demand soars, Begich noted that his state is key for delivering oil, gas, and critical minerals. The Alaskan representative previously told the DCNF that overturning these Biden-era plans are key to helping unleash American energy dominance.
Thursday night’s signing marks Begich’s fourth bill signed into law during his first year in Congress.
Begich and other Alaskans, including tribal communities, told the DCNF previously that former President Joe Biden’s assault on their resources was devastating.
“Alaska had about 70 executive orders and actions that specifically targeted our ability to develop mineral resources and energy resources in our state [under former President Joe Biden.] These are orders and actions that did not apply to other states. And others have said this — that’s more executive actions against the state of Alaska than sanctions against the nation of Iran,” Begich told the DCNF previously.
Nagruk Harcharek, president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, (VOICE) a nonprofit organization that represents 21 different Native American corporations and communities in Alaska, told the DCNF previously that the North Slope is dependent on oil and gas.
“The economy in the North Slope is oil and gas activity,” he told the DCNF. Schools, healthcare, roads and running water all came from the “economic base our early leaders ensured that we had access to.”
While Biden delivered the environmental lobby several wins, the Trump administration has reversed many of them by expanding fossil fuel leasing and rolling back stringent climate regulations. Notably, Earthjustice and the Center for Biological Diversity fought the Keystone XL pipeline that former President Joe Biden effectively killed on day-one of his presidency through an executive order.
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