04.22.24

Sullivan: Biden Cancelled Indigenous Alaskans Supporting Resource Development in NPR-A

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said President Joe Biden effectively “cancelled” the voices of the Alaska Native North Slope leaders who were unanimously opposed to the President’s decision to restrict more than 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPR-A) from resource development in an interview on CBS News’ “Face the Nation” and in an opinion published in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend. Senator Sullivan also warned of the dangerous national security implications of President Biden’s recent restrictions on development in NPR-A and on access to a massive deposit of critical minerals also located in Alaska. Sullivan called on Biden to stop sanctioning Alaska and to instead restore sanctions on Iran. The President announced both decisions Friday, which were condemned by members of the Alaska congressional delegation.

OP-ED: Biden Helps Iran, Hits Alaska

His administration gives Tehran a free hand to export oil while shutting down domestic development.

By Dan Sullivan

April 19, 2024

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. Yet rather than maximize our nation’s strengths and weaken our adversaries, the Biden administration is doing the opposite.

Consider its policy on Iran. Under sanctions pressure from the Trump administration, Iranian oil exports in 2020 were at about 200,000 barrels a day, leaving Tehran with about $4 billion in foreign reserves, a small pool relative to the country’s size. In an effort to appease the mullahs, however, the Biden administration hasn’t enforced comprehensive sanctions since 2021. As a result, Iranian oil exports today are at nearly 1.6 million barrels a day and its regime has been enriched by more than $70 billion. Iran uses this windfall in part to fund its terrorist proxies, including the Houthis, Hamas and Hezbollah. Iranian oil development also allows the regime to deepen its ties with China, which buys about 80% of Iran’s oil exports.

Meantime the Biden administration is doing the reverse at home—weakening America’s domestic energy production by restricting development on two important sites, the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska and Alaska’s Ambler Mining District.


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These measures are suicidal—and lawless. In 1980 Congress directed the interior secretary to “conduct an expeditious program of competitive leasing” in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The Biden administration is dramatically reinterpreting this law so it can treat those 13 million acres it is locking up as de facto federal wilderness.

The decision, ironically, ignores the desires of many in the Alaska Native community. Elected indigenous leaders from the North Slope of Alaska eight times have requested a meeting with Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to express their opposition to the administration’s new rule. Each time, they’ve been denied. It seems that the Biden administration listens to people of color and indigenous communities only if they align with the administration’s extreme antidevelopment policies.

Click here to read Sen. Sullivan’s full op-ed.

Sullivan: Biden’s Lawless Decision to Restrict NPRA and Cite Strong Indigenous Support is Despicable

MARGARET BRENNAN: The president wants to conserve 30 percent of U.S. lands as part of his climate change efforts, and he has limited oil and gas drilling in parts of the National Petroleum Reserve to protect polar bears and other things. Then he also blocked a road crucial to operating a copper and zinc mine. You said this is “suicidal” and “lawless.”

DAN SULLIVAN: It was. 

BRENNAN: Those are strong words. 

SULLIVAN: Well, it's lawless. He doesn't have the authority to do it. And I could go into all the laws that support me on that. It's, as I say, national security suicide. This President won't sanction the Iranian oil and gas regime. You may have seen Senator Blumenthal and I sent a letter to the President on Friday saying, “You need to do that.” But he has no problem sanctioning Alaska. This administration has issued 63 executive orders and executive actions singularly focused on Alaska to shut our state down. That, of course, hurts my constituents. But, Margaret, natural resources, energy, critical minerals—that's an American strength! This should concern all kinds of Americans.

I'll mention one final thing that I really wanted to highlight here. I've been in the Senate nine years. I have never seen such a cynical and dishonest display coming out of any presidency when this President on Friday, with Secretary Haaland, announced that they did this because the Alaska Native, the Indigenous people on the North Slope of Alaska asked them to—they wanted them to. The leaders of the North Slope of Alaska were unanimous in opposition to this. They tried to meet with Secretary Haaland. She wouldn't meet with them. This is a rule that focuses on their lands, where they've been living for thousands of years. And then the President says, “I did it because the indigenous people of Alaska wanted it.” That is a lie. It is a lie. Go see what the Indigenous people of Alaska from that part of my state said. They're very upset. And the President was canceling their voices and now stealing their voices. It was really a despicable move.

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