(The Center Square) – Gov. Mike Dunleavy said the Biden administration’s energy policies are costing the country.
Members of the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources are touring the state and will meet with leaders on the North Slope, where the Biden administration has halted oil and gas projects.
Overall, 66 executive orders have been directed at Alaska and weaken America’s domestic energy production by restricting development in the Natural Petroleum Reserve, said U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who joined Dunleavy and the committee members for a news conference.
“What is the cost to America? What is the cost to Alaska when a particular project…whether it be oil, mining or timber is shut down? We estimate that is in the billions if not close to trillions of dollars,” Dunleavy said. “We are doing some work to actually come up with some figures on that.”
Rep. Pete Stauber, R-Minn., said it is part of the Biden administration’s “anywhere but America, any worker but America” agenda.
“Alaska has been blessed with vast natural resources, including oil and natural gas that can help power the American economy, along with mineral deposits that are necessary for our country’s future, and Alaskans prove every day that these resources can be developed in a safe and responsible manner,” Stauber said.
The majority of residents near the North Slope are against the Biden administration’s actions, Sullivan said.
“We are living in one of the most dangerous times since World War II, as Beijing, Moscow and Tehran attempt to undermine the free world,” Sullivan said. “Yet rather than maximize our nation’s strengths and weaken our adversaries, the Biden-Harris administration is doing the opposite—issuing 66 executive orders and actions directly targeting Alaska and weakening America’s domestic energy production by restricting development in the NPR-A, one of the world’s most prolific energy basins.”
Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, a group representing 23 Arctic member organizations, sued the Biden administration in July, saying the rule puts their economy in “serious jeopardy. More than one-third of the residents’ jobs in the North Slope Borough are directly or indirectly supported by the oil and gas industry, according to the lawsuit.
The rule “establishes new standards and procedures for managing and protecting surface resources in the Reserve from the reasonably foreseeable and significantly adverse effects of oil and gas activities,” the Bureau of Land Management said in the rule, which was finalized in April.
