Home Secretary Doug Burgum posted a welcome news to a group of people in Alaska Sunday night: The Trump administration will take action to revoke Biden-era climate rules that lock millions of acres in future oil and gas developments. [emphasis, links added]
Burgum made an unexpected announcement in Alaska's Utqiagvik (the northernmost community and residence of the Inupiat people) by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and EPA Chief Executive Lee Zeldin, and President Donald Trump Trump's National Energy Steering Committee.
Under Burgum's direction, the Home Office will initiate formal rulemaking procedures on Monday morning to revoke the regulations.
The action will finalize, to cancel former President Joe Biden announced in 2024, thus preventing the development of 13 million acres of federal land in Alaska's national oil reserves, a regional congress dedicated to development decades ago.
Despite strong opposition from locals in Alaska, the Biden administration is still under restrictions, many of whom were at a city hall event in Utqiagvik on Sunday night.
“There are allegations from the three of us – our work in various departments is to unlock the extraordinary potential of Alaska,” Burgum said.
Many governments’ energy-related actions have been through administrative actions so far, which makes them vulnerable to court bans and reversals from future democratic governments.
By choosing a formal rulemaking process, Burgum’s approach to the issue could provide more change for action in the Biden-era era that clashed with Trump’s agenda. …Sniper…
“It means they are listening,” Utqiagvik Mayor Asisaun Toovak told Washington Free Beacon In the interview.
“They take their time to come here, 3,000 miles north, listen to our native voices and listen to our right to self-determination as a person who is not appointed. They are listening, they are listening, they are listening, they are hearing our voices, they are working on it.”
In addition to TOOVAK, several leaders from other communities in Utqiagvik and North Slope Borough attended the Town Hall on Sunday to support the delegation’s agenda.
“I would like to say, in the words of our Commander-in-Chief President Donald J. Trump, drilling, baby, drilling,” yelled Charles Lampe, head of Kaktovik, Alaska.
Despite the distance, the region contains some of the country's largest oil and gas reserves.
The continued development of these reserves could help allies in other parts of the country and abroad provide much-needed cheap energy, while helping to strengthen economies of poor local villages around them, such as Utqiagvik and Kaktovik, which rely on such projects that rely on much-needed tax revenues.
That’s why Alaskan natives overwhelmingly support more oil and gas drilling projects.
The Biden administration eventually ignored their pleas and replaced it with the side of powerful environmental groups who advocated more restrictions on development to curb greenhouse gas emissions and protect wildlife.
To this end, Biden locked in more than 28 million acres of land in the Alaska National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A) and the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR). He also closed down drilling on the coast of northern Alaska.
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