Top Trump officials visit prolific Alaska oil field amid push to expand drilling

DEADHORSE Alaska AP President Donald Trump wants to double the amount of oil coursing through Alaska s vast pipeline system and build a massive natural gas project as its big beautiful twin a top administration official mentioned Monday while touring a prolific oil field near the Arctic Ocean The remarks by U S Vigor Secretary Chris Wright came as he and two other Trump Cabinet members Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin visited Prudhoe Bay as part of a multiday trip aimed at highlighting Trump s push to expand oil and gas drilling mining and logging in the state that drew criticism from environmentalists During the trip Burgum s agency also released plans to repeal Biden-era restrictions on future leasing and industrial evolution in portions of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska that are designated as special for their wildlife subsistence or other values The petroleum reserve is west of Prudhoe Bay and Deadhorse the industrial encampment near the starting point of the trans-Alaska pipeline system The pipeline which runs for miles nearly kilometers has been Alaska s economic lifeline for nearly years Governing body and industry representatives several Asian countries including Japan were expected to join a portion of the U S officers trip as Trump has focused renewed attention on the gas project proposal which in its current iteration would provide gas to Alaska residents and ship liquefied natural gas overseas Matsuo Takehiko vice minister for International Affairs at Japan s Ministry of Market Contract and Industry was among those at Prudhoe Bay on Monday For years state leaders have dreamed of such a project but cost concerns shifts in direction competition and questions about economic feasibility have hindered progress U S tariff talks with Asian countries have been seen as practicable leverage for the Trump administration to secure investments in the proposed gas project Oil and natural gas are in major demand worldwide Wright stated a group of bureaucrats and pipeline employees in safety hats and vests who gathered near the oil pipeline on a blustery day with -degree Fahrenheit - Celsius windchills The pipeline stretched out over the snow-covered landscape You have the big two right here he announced Let s double oil production build the big beautiful twin and we will help energize the world and we will strengthen our country and strengthen our families Oil flow through the trans-Alaska pipeline peaked at about million barrels in the late s In a year in which an average of about barrels of oil a day flowed through the pipeline then-Gov Sean Parnell a Republican set a goal of boosting that number to million barrels a day within a decade It s never come close in the years since last year throughput averaged about barrels a day The Trump personnel were joined Monday by a group that included U S Sen Dan Sullivan and Gov Mike Dunleavy both Republicans who also took part in meetings Sunday in Anchorage and Utqiagvik In Utqiagvik an Arctic public that experiences hours of daylight at this time of year a large number of Alaska Native leaders encouragement Trump s push for more drilling in the petroleum reserve and to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil improvement They lauded the visit after lamenting that they felt ignored by former President Joe Biden s administration Alaska political leaders have long complained about perceived federal overreach by the U S administration which oversees about of lands in Alaska Sullivan Dunleavy and Alaska s senior U S senator Lisa Murkowski often complained that Biden s organization was too restrictive in its approach to plenty of pool growth issues Murkowski an at-times vocal critic of Trump joined for the Sunday meeting in Anchorage where she disclosed Alaska leaders want to partner with you We want to be that equal at the table instead of an afterthought Environmentalists criticized Interior s planned rollback of restrictions in portions of the petroleum reserve While Sullivan called the repeal a top priority saying Congress intended to have expansion in the petroleum reserve environmentalists maintain that the law balances allowances for oil drilling with a need to provide protections for sensitive areas and decried Interior s plans as wrong-headed Erik Grafe an attorney with Earthjustice called the Trump administration s intense focus on oil and gas troubling particularly in a state experiencing the real-time impacts of environment change He called the continued pursuit of fossil fuel improvement very frustrating and heartbreaking to see The Interior Department mentioned it will accept constituents comment on the planned repeal The three Trump authorities also plan to speak at Dunleavy s annual potency conference Tuesday in Anchorage