OP-ED: Seizing opportunities for Alaska with the Trump administration

I recently delivered my annual address to the Legislature in Juneau. I spoke about the success we’ve had in continuing our military build-up, including the possibility of re-opening the U.S. Navy base in Adak, to counter the unprecedented number of Russian and Chinese incursions near our air and waters.

I spoke about our veterans and how we’re continuing to work to make sure they get the benefits they have earned. We’ve also passed significant legislation, the Social Security Fairness Act, to ensure that our other outstanding public servants — like teachers, firefighters, police officers — get the Social Security benefits they have earned. I spoke about our focus on making aviation safer, and the work we’re doing to help our hard-working fishermen and coastal communities, all of whom have experienced very rough times recently.

But the heart of my speech centered on two visions for Alaska that have existed since statehood. One sees our state more run by an absent federal landlord who seeks to protect us and occasionally gives us scraps from the wealth of America’s table to keep us happy. This arrogant federal landlord view of Alaska reached its zenith under President Biden with his “Last Frontier lock-up” — 70 executive orders and actions exclusively focused on shutting down Alaska’s private sector economy, harming working families, and killing hundreds if not thousands of jobs.

The other vision, which I believe most Alaskans support, envisions unlocking the wealth of Alaska to create sustainable, private sector economic growth and good-paying jobs. With the stroke of a pen on his first day in office, President Trump fully endorsed this vision by issuing an Alaska-specific executive order that undoes much of the Biden lock-up and sent an unmistakable message that unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resources and growing our economy is a top priority of his administration.

I encourage all Alaskans to read the EO, understand it, and most importantly, work to use it for the betterment of Alaskans. This executive order could help us achieve many of the big, long-sought ambitions in our state and create thousands of good-paying jobs.

To be clear, this EO is not a panacea. But we are the only state in the country that got one. Alaska has never seen such a positive signal directly from a U.S. president that we should pursue our vision of a state that seeks private sector wealth and job creation with a federal government that is a partner in opportunity, not a hostile opponent.

As I was delivering my speech in Juneau, the Interior Department released another order lifting the decades-obsolete Public Land Order 5150, long used to hinder major resource projects in our state. This order puts ANWR and NPR-A back on the table for responsible development and enables the State of Alaska to select lands along the Dalton Highway corridor for conveyance, including the land beneath the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, something Alaskans have been trying to get done since the 1970s.

We’ve also seen major progress on a dream that has eluded our grasp for decades — the Alaska LNG project. As a state and federal official, I’ve been working on this project for over 15 years. I understand there is skepticism. We have been hearing about this for decades. But the potential transformative benefits for our state are so huge, and the geostrategic imperative for America and our Asian allies so compelling, that my team and I have, for years, kept ramming our shoulders into the cement wall of Alaska LNG, hoping someday that this wall would give way.

As of late, a crack has developed — an 800-mile crack in this wall that shows undeniable progress.

After the November election, I met with President Trump and pitched him and his team on the huge benefits of this project for America. I asked the president for his full backing, and we’ve gotten it.

In his recent meeting with the Japanese Prime Minister, President Trump pressed him on the Alaska LNG project. And last month in his address to Congress, President Trump said:

“My administration is also working on a gigantic natural gas pipeline in Alaska—among the largest in the world—where Japan, South Korea, and other nations want to be our partner with investments of trillions of dollars each. There’s never been anything like that one. It will be truly spectacular.”

None of this progress happens by accident. I worked closely with Gov. Dunleavy and our teams to secure these actions.

But we’re pushing on an open door. The Trump administration wants to help Alaska.

In the past week, I’ve had productive discussions with President Trump, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and other members of Trump’s cabinet on prioritizing the Alaska LNG project and, in particular, long-term Alaska LNG off-take agreements from countries like Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in their tariff agreement negotiations. Both Trump and Bessent have stated that this is one of their goals in these negotiations.

In my speech, I respectfully asked our state legislators to find creative ways to build on this unprecedented momentum we’re seeing at the federal level for the Alaska LNG project, not stop it. To the naysayers and pessimists, I asked, what is the alternative for Alaskans? Importing gas from Canada or Mexico? If we do, energy prices are going to double or triple for our homes, businesses, schools, and hospitals. Low-cost energy will be closed for a generation, and the good-paying jobs and possibilities that go with the Alaska LNG project will flee our state — and so will our kids.

To be clear, I don’t agree with everything the Trump administration has done, particularly some of the DOGE actions in Alaska.

But difficult choices have to be made. Our $36 trillion national debt is at a dangerous and unsustainable level. Last year, we paid out more in interest on this debt — upwards of $950 billion — than we did to fund our military at about $870 billion. When you look at history, great powers begin to fail when they hit this precarious inflection point. These debt and spending levels also drive high inflation rates as we’ve seen over the past few years, which remain the top concern of Alaska families.

I’ve spoken directly with DOGE and Trump administration leaders regularly on this effort. They know that some mistakes will be made, and they want to work with us to correct them. We have had some successes reversing or preventing certain actions — on things like GSA leases and frozen federal funding on numerous projects across our state — particularly if they undermine the President’s Alaska-specific EO to unleash Alaska’s economy.

But it’s vital that we Alaskans not forget the bigger picture. We have opportunities like never before to grow our state’s economy, create thousands of good-paying jobs and permit and build our long-sought projects. Imagine what we could achieve with a nearly inexhaustible supply of our own affordable natural gas for the whole state. Imagine the private sector opportunities that could start here — a manufacturing base, thousands of good-paying jobs, a steady source of income for many years to come to our state’s coffers.

We can’t lose sight of the vision arising from our frontier heritage. This vision built our state and is still brimming with strength, invention, energy, and opportunity.

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