I’ve always maintained one can describe most of Alaska in three words: vast, wild, and free. But it’s important to note that Alaska is also rich in resources, not least of which are crude oil and natural gas, those two commodities that are so vital to our economy. Much of that gas and oil flows through the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) from Prudhoe Bay to Valdez. This Alaska pipeline is a vital piece of American infrastructure. Running 800 miles across the Great Land, much of it through the wilderness, TAPS brings 45,000 barrels a day of crude oil to American consumers; that’s about 3.5 percent of American production.
Now environmental groups are petitioning the Biden administration to shut that vital pipeline down, and the Biden administration itself, in what appears to be one last shot at Alaska and Alaskan energy production — and Alaskan jobs — is working to cut off more and more Alaskan land from energy exploration and extraction.
The list of petitioners on the pipeline issue is a who’s who of the environmental extremist groups.
This June, these environmental groups filed a legal petition to the U.S. Department of Interior to phase-out and decommission TAPS: the Center for Biological Diversity; Pacific Environment; Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic; Alaska Community Action on Toxics; Fairbanks Climate Action Coalition; and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (also see here).
“[TAPS] is approaching the end of its useful life due to mounting climate change-driven damages to both the aging pipeline infrastructure and the entire Arctic ecosystem,” the six petitioners state, also citing “the imperative for the United States to rapidly transition away from fossil fuel-based energy.”
That imperative need? Because of the ongoing flap about climate change.
This isn’t a new effort. Climate scolds have been trying to shut down Alaskan energy production for years, just as they have been trying to fundamentally change everything in our American way of life, to make us less comfortable, less prosperous, and less free.
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These are leftist groups, most of them over 4,000 miles away from Alaska, who are petitioning for this. But it’s not just these groups that are trying to shut down Alaskan energy production; the Biden administration itself, on its way out the door, is trying to lock away more and more remote Alaskan lands. This not only costs American consumers more for everything they buy by raising the cost of energy; it also deprives Alaskans, many of whom are natives who live near the oil fields, of good-paying jobs in an area where there are few if any, good alternatives .
The Biden-Harris administration is considering further restricting oil development in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A), the nation’s largest swath of public land. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) will be soliciting public comment on whether to expand or designate new “special areas” in the 23-million-acre reserve. The move could extend the areas of the NPR-A that are mostly off limits to drillers and stymie new exploration for oil in the western Arctic. BLM claims it is protecting caribou and herd health, as well as other wildlife, migratory birds, and native plants. The evaluation is part of the Biden-Harris administration’s attempts to dampen oil and gas activity in the Arctic to appease environmentalists following its 2023 approval of the $8 billion Willow oil project in the national reserve. The Biden-Harris administration has targeted Alaska’s resource development opportunities 65 times, affecting the state’s energy and economic future. The Biden-Harris administration has kowtowed to environmentalists in an attempt to gain favor at the ballot box.
Making common cause for once, both of Alaska’s Senators are campaigning against this effort.
U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both R-Alaska, issued the following statements criticizing the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) after it released a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) recommending the revocation of five Public Land Orders (PLOs) signed in January 2021 that would return 28 million acres of Alaska lands to federal multiple use status, and instead maintain a series of restrictive, long-obsolete encumbrances.
Leaving PLOs in place across Alaska serves as a de facto land withdrawal that restricts public access, multiple use, and the transfer of certain selected lands to Alaska Native Vietnam-era veterans, Alaska Native Corporations, and State of Alaska ownership. This, in turn, conflicts with federal law by preventing the fulfillment of the Alaska’s statehood entitlement; economic development, including responsible resource development, to assure Alaska’s future prosperity; and the long-term settlement of land ownership across the state.
Why does all this matter right now?
Let’s set aside the environmental groups for the moment. This is, after all, what they do; they are a constant needle in the side of the American energy sector. But while they can petition, file lawsuits, and try to persuade the public to take their side, they cannot coerce. The Biden administration can, and is more than willing to do so. They are more than willing to shut down as much Alaskan — and indeed, American — energy production as they think they can get away with, and then some more. Joe Biden, immediately on taking office, shut down the Keystone pipeline; he has taken every chance to stifle American energy production, not just in Alaska but anywhere he has the ability to do so.
A Harris/Walz administration would take this to the next level. Climate scolds are already rallying around the Harris/Walz banner, and it’s for sure and for certain that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz would, given the chance, repay them for their loyalty by doing more damage to the Alaskan — and American — energy sector than any administration in history.
This is one more reason, folks, that this November, we face one of the most important elections in the history of the republic — and one more reason that Kamala Harris and Tim Walz must never, ever be allowed near the levers of power.