Sullivan Shares Vision of Seizing Economic Opportunities for Alaska’s Future in Address to Legislature

JUNEAU, ALASKA—U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) today delivered his annual address to a joint session of the Alaska Legislature in Juneau, outlining an optimistic vision for Alaska’s future focused on growing the state’s private sector economy, creating good-paying jobs for Alaska’s families, and uniting to seize the enormous economic opportunities available to the state.

“This is a vision that I believe everybody in this room supports,” said Sen. Sullivan. “It’s a vision arising from our frontier heritage—a spirit of strength, invention, energy, and resilience, shaking off the shackles of the past, and building a new world. It’s a spirit of opportunity. It is the spirit of the Last Frontier.”

Sen. Sullivan contrasted the Trump administration’s positive focus on Alaska’s economy, as demonstrated by hisday-one “Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource Potential” executive order, with the 70 executive orders and actions of the Biden administration targeting Alaska’s economy and access to lands during the last four years.

“With the stroke of a pen, on his first day in office, President Trump sent Alaska, America, and the world an unmistakable message that unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary resources and jobs in a growing economy is one of his administration’s top priorities,” said Sen. Sullivan. “Regardless of political party, I encourage all of you to read it, understand it, and most importantly, work with us to use it for the betterment of the people we are honored to represent.”

Sen. Sullivan also shared the unprecedented progress on the Alaska LNG project, which would bring affordable energy and thousands of jobs to the state, and breaking news from the Department of the Interior, whichannounced today it will lift Public Land Order 5150, restoring access to federal lands, facilitating long-overdue land conveyances, and boosting responsible resource production in Alaska.

“I know you have a lot of hard work to do to make sure the Alaska LNG project gets the proper scrutiny and due diligence, and that’s a big part of your job,” Sen. Sullivan said. “But we have to move fast. We have an opportunity! As you’re evaluating this project and thinking of creative ways to spur it, not stop it, I’m asking all of you—all of us collectively as Alaskans—to not lose sight of the vision that built our state. The vision that’s still brimming with strength, invention, energy, and opportunity.”

In his remarks, Sen. Sullivan also gave an update on his work to continue building up Alaska’s military, including the first new icebreaker in a generation, the USCGC Storis, which will achieve initial operating capability by this August and is set to be homeported in Juneau. He also spoke about progress that he’s achieved in pushing the Department of Defense (DOD) to reopen the historic naval base in Adak in the Aleutian Islands.

“With authoritarian aggression on the rise, especially near our borders, I am happy to report that, after five years of dogged persistence on the Armed Services Committee from me and my team—countless hearings, meetings, amendments in the National Defense Authorization Act—the NORTHCOM commander and INDOPACOM commander in hearings have recently agreed that we need to re-open the naval base at Adak for our national security,” said Sen. Sullivan. “I was recently briefed by the CNO of the Navy—the top admiral in the U.S. Navy. They’re going to be sending a team next week to assess the investments needed in order to reopen Adak as part of our defense perimeter on the northern border for our country.”

Finally, Sen. Sullivan discussed his efforts to protect the interests of Alaska’s fishermen and coastal communities, establish stronger aviation safety standards in Alaska, and raise awareness about the dangers of fentanyl with a statewide “One Pill Can Kill” campaign. He also addressed federal spending reductions by the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and encouraged Alaskans to reach out to his office regarding decisions that would run counter to President Trump’s day-one executive order to unleash Alaska’s economy.

Below is a full transcript of Senator Sullivan’s address as delivered.

I. Introduction

Good morning, everybody. President Stevens. Speaker Edgmon. Members of the House and Senate. Thank you for inviting me to speak to you this morning.

It’s a great tradition and it’s really great to be back home!

I want to begin by introducing my outstanding team who are in the gallery today: Larry Burton, my chief of staff; Amanda Coyne, my communications director; Michael Soukup, my deputy communications director; Maria Uchytil, my Juneau Regional Director. Many of you know Joe Byrnes, who I recently stole from DNR. Rest assured, he’s still working for Alaska!

I also am appreciative of the work my team and I do with our Alaska delegation—we are a small but mighty delegation back in D.C.—Senator Murkowski and, our newest member, Congressman Nick Begich, who’s doing a really great job.

You can tell, this is the most important speech for me all year. I bring a big team.

But the most important member of my team and the most important person the world for me, the love of my life—my wife, Julie, is also here today. I should just end it. You gave my wife a standing ovation. I should be done. I’m just going to leave. Thank you for that. That was very kind.

II. Alaska Legislature Facts

I also want to mention it’s great to have our good friend Donny Olson back. Donny, we’ve been praying for you and Rep. Maxine Dibert as well. We know that prayers have been answered so we’re glad that both of you are back here and healthy.

As the father of three daughters and husband to a strong, brilliant wife, it’s great to see our House have a majority of women here. This is not surprising given our state’s history—the Alaska Legislature voted to give women the right to vote seven years before the passage of the 19th Amendment, and this body also passed the first anti-racial discrimination bill 19 years before the 1964 Civil Rights Act, due to the advocacy of a strong Native Alaskan, Elizabeth Peratrovich.

I mentioned this already. This is the most important speech I give all year, because we want to work closely with all of you, and it’s a marker of our state’s progress. Last year, I spoke about the optimists who dare greatly and have made our state what it is today. Those with the big can-do spirit that reflects the best of our Alaskan heritage, who’ve had to overcome the naysayers and pessimists, which I described in detail last year.

III. Two Visions for Alaska

This historical divide still lingers in our state and continues to drive politics in D.C. On one side, you had people arguing that our state could never succeed on its own, and so we would do better continuing as a territory run by an absent federal landlord who would protect us and occasionally give us scraps from the wealth of America’s table to keep us happy or at least mollified.

On the other side, you had people like Bob Bartlett, Wally Hickel, and Ted Stevens who saw such great possibility in our people, and who saw that the key to our future would be to unlock the wealth of Alaska and the private sector economy of our bountiful state, with sustainable economic growth and jobs that we create here. This was supposed to have been the promise of statehood. As Bartlett said, because of statehood, Alaska “is no longer a beggar at the national table.”

Today, elected leaders in Juneau and Washington, D.C. still play tug-of-war with these two very different visions for our state.

There are those who still view the federal government as our wealthy, but distant, and sometimes arrogant, protectorate. In my opinion, this has bred an attitude of defeat in some Alaskans, which has often led to cynicism. If you’re still a beggar, and it takes years or even decades to get the federal government’s permission to build a road, or a mine, or a hydro project, then anything you might try to achieve—big dreams—always seem bound to fail.

Throughout the decades back in D.C., national Democrats and their special interest, far-left environmental allies have not only encouraged this mindset for political gain, but contorted it to keep us locked up as America’s beautiful snow-globe.

This mindset was on full display when President Carter signed ANILCA to lock up more than 100 million acres of our lands, declaring, “Public lands are Alaska's future.”

It was on full display when President Obama told Alaska, in one of his last acts to illegally—in my view—lock up the entire Alaska outer continental shelf, that we need to “move decisively away from fossil fuels.” The way “to build a strong Arctic economy” in Alaska, he told us, was to rely on things like charity—“philanthropy” in President Obama’s words. More scraps from the federal table!

And, of course, this arrogant federal landlord view of Alaska was on full display and reached its zenith under President Biden with his “Last Frontier Lock-Up”—an unprecedented 70 executive orders and executive actions exclusively focused on Alaska and shutting down our private sector economy, and which did so much to hurt working families. 70. There were going to be more, but we blocked a number of them. 70 executive orders solely focused on our state.

Almost all of this happened despite direct appeals from Alaskans—Democrats, Republicans, most of you; on Willow, all of you—to not undertake such actions against us. This was particularly the case when it came to our Alaska Native community on the North Slope.

Eight times, North Slope leaders from the tribe, ICAS, from ASRC, and the North Slope Borough—now so ably led by your former colleague, Josiah Patkotak—eight times they flew thousands of miles to D.C. to request a meeting Secretary of the Interior Haaland to oppose her lock up of their lands. Eight times, she refused to meet with them.

Talk about arrogant, faraway landlords.

These anti-Alaska actions from the Obama and Biden administrations directly killed—at a minimum—hundreds of good-paying private sector jobs and almost certainly opportunities for thousands more in Alaska.

I hope our kids and grandkids, for their sake, never have to go through this kind of assault on our state ever again. You can tell I feel strongly about this. I know you do too.

But there’s another vision that I believe everybody in this room supports. It’s a vision arising from our frontier heritage—a spirit of strength, invention, energy, and resilience, shaking off the shackles of the past, and building a new world. It’s a spirit of opportunity. It is the spirit of the Last Frontier.

We get it from the Alaska Native people who’ve thrived on this land for thousands of years in some of the harshest conditions in the world.

We get it from the gold miners who traveled North to find their fortune.

We get it from the pioneers who came from thousands of miles away and built new communities.

We get it from our incredible veteran population who defended freedom for America across the globe.

We get it from our construction workers and building trades who have built Alaska man-made marvels, like TAPS.

We get it from our law enforcement officers who’ve brought law and order to a rough and rugged land.

We get it from our fishermen on dangerous seas.

We get it from so many Alaskans in this room and across our state who still have that frontier spirit, and who reject begging at the national table; who see Alaskan private sector-led growth, unleashing wealth and the bounty of our state, and the creation of good-paying jobs and the promise of opportunity for our kids and grandkids.

IV. Trump’s EO

Regardless of political party, I encourage all of you to read it, understand it, and most importantly, work with us to use it for the betterment of the people we are honored to represent.

This executive order could help bring so many of the big, long-sought ambitions in our state and thousands of good-paying jobs with it.

This Alaska executive order also works as a blueprint to upend our assumptions on how long economic development projects should take to permit and build. We’re so used to the “mother may I” federal permitting slog and the use of delay tactics to kill projects in our state, that, in many ways, we’ve come to accept it. Ten years to permit a hydro project. Twenty years to permit the Kensington Mine right here outside of Juneau. Forty years to permit the Cooper Landing Bypass. The Willow Project has been in the works since 1999. It will have spanned six administrations before first oil.

Now, this executive order is not a panacea. Far-left eco-colonialist environmental groups will still sue to kill projects in our state and deprive Alaska Natives of their sovereignty. But we are the only state in the country with our own executive order from this administration. 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!

By the way, related to this EO, a little bit of breaking news: The Secretary of the Interior just issued a follow-on order —they just put a press release out —on this. I’ve been trading phone calls with him the last two days, so I haven’t talked to him directly. When you take a look at it, their order opens up 82 percent of the NPR-A—reversing the Biden EOs—reinstates the ANWR leasing program, which was in the law—reversing the Biden EOs—and very importantly, something we as Alaskans have been trying to get done since the 1970s: It lifts Public Land Order 5150—that is the TAPS corridor—and it gives that land back to the State of Alaska. That's big news. I promise you, I did not coordinate that press release with this speech. It was purely serendipitous.

V. Where Government Funding is Needed

Of course, there is still a very important role for the federal government in our state. Let me talk about a number of things we’re focused on back in D.C., where we are trying to partner with the federal government—and working with all of you—for the betterment of the citizens we represent.

We are a resource-rich but infrastructure-poor state. You all know it. We all know it. We have less road miles than Connecticut, and we’re almost 120 times bigger. Since I’ve been in office, we’ve successfully fought for billions of dollars in federal funds to help us build out our basic infrastructure—roads, bridges, water and sewer in our Native communities, broadband, ferries. These are critical for our state. We need to make sure, and you have my commitment, working with all of you, that our STIP process maximizes these important federal infrastructure investments for Alaska.

Military

We are the most strategically located place in the world. My Senate colleagues get so bored and annoyed when I continue to quote Billy Mitchell, the father of the U.S. Air Force, about Alaska being the most strategic place in the world.

Our military has always been on the frontlines, protecting our state and our country. We are experiencing an unprecedented number of new incursions, with Russia and China working together in our air and on our waters—our ADIZ and our EEZ. As I mentioned, this is unprecedented.

We’re working relentlessly to continue to build up our military here. We’re anticipating billions of dollars in new military construction for our state.

Military investments have never been more important for our national security. Fortunately, the Trump administration recognizes this, particularly as it relates to missile defense.

We are the cornerstone of missile defense for the whole country. The 49th Missile Defense Battalion at Fort Greely has this great motto: the “300 protecting the 300 million.” That’s what we do in Alaska. It’s one of the many things we’re proud of.

I recently introduced legislation to work in conjunction with the Trump administration’s executive order on an “Iron Dome” missile defense for America. This ambitious project—take a look at our legislation. It lays out what it will look like for the country; lays out what it would do for Alaska. It will mean billions of dollars of additional investments in our state in terms of radars and sensors, personnel. We’re dreaming big with this idea, and we’re going to need your help.

We’re also going back to the future on the strategic importance of the Aleutian Islands.

With authoritarian aggression on the rise, especially near our borders, I am happy to report that after five years of dogged persistence on the Armed Services Committee from me and my team—countless hearings, meetings, amendments in the National Defense Authorization Act—the NORTHCOM commander and INDOPACOM commander in hearings have recently agreed that we need to re-open the Naval base at Adak for our national security.

I was recently briefed by the CNO of the Navy—the top admiral in the U.S. Navy. They’re going to be sending a team next week to assess the investments needed in order to reopen Adak as part of our defense perimeter on the northern border for our country.

Coast Guard

Of course, our military includes our Coast Guard. The heroic, brave men and women who rescue Alaskans on our seas. We love our Coast Guard. They are such an integral part of our communities as well.

Since I’ve been in office, we’ve been able to significantly beef up our Coast Guard assets, with hundreds of millions of dollars of additional investments and additional personnel. We’ve convinced the Coast Guard to stay in communities like Valdez and dramatically expand their presence in communities like Sitka, Kodiak, Seward, and right here in Juneau. More is coming in the budget reconciliation bill on the Coast Guard.

As I mentioned, right here in Juneau, we’re making history with regard to the Coast Guard. The Coast Guard Cutter Storis—the first polar icebreaker in a generation—is now being retrofitted—that’s the one that was commercially bought—as we speak, and should achieve its initial operating capability—operating up in the Arctic—by August of this year.

After years of work, the Coast Guard has committed to us that they will homeport this icebreaker where the ice is. Imagine that! In Alaska! They’re going to homeport this icebreaker here, in Juneau, Alaska. That’s going to be great for Juneau, great for Southeast, great for Arctic security, and great for America! Again, an icebreaker near the ice—great idea Coast Guard.

Veterans

Our large military presence in Alaska also means that we have a very large veteran population, the most veterans per capita of any state in the country. Can I ask all of our proud veterans to stand up, and the spouses of our veterans? Thank you very much. As a member of the Veterans Affairs Committee, I’ve worked hard to make sure our veterans get the care and benefits they have earned. We want to continue to attract our military members to stay in Alaska when they retire. It’s such a great benefit to our state.

Social Security Fairness Act

But it’s also other outstanding public servants—like teachers, fire fighters, policemen—that we need to advocate for to stay here! On this topic, I want to give a shout-out to Representative Alyse Galvin for organizing a joint resolution, signed unanimously by every single one of you, asking me to support the Social Security Fairness Act.

I had been working on a state-focused solution to the unfair penalties to Alaska’s public servants’ and their retirements for years. Frankly, I didn’t think a national fix was going to be possible. But it was.

This was a great example of the state and federal legislators working together.

You might remember, in 2023, I came to all of you in my remarks to the Legislature and said: We have to work together on this Willow Project, implementing a successful strategy to make it happen. You delivered. The joint resolution from all of you was critical. Unanimous joint resolution.

So you came to me last year—thank you again, Alyse—coming together with one voice, unanimously, and asked me to support the Social Security Fairness Act. We did, and that passed. That is the power of speaking together as Alaskans on a big issue with one voice. Thank you very much for that.

I’m sure you have too, but I’ve heard from a lot of our retired firefighters, teachers, who are benefitting and saying, “I’m staying in Alaska to contribute in another way.” That’s going to be great for our state. Thanks, again, on that.

Aviation

Let me turn very quickly to aviation. We have had a number of high-profile aviation accidents in our country over the last couple of months, including the Bering Air crash that took the lives of 10 Alaskans. Our hearts still weigh heavy for the families and loved ones lost.

In response, to the crash here, in February, I organized a press conference with the new Secretary of Transportation, the Chair of the NTSB, and the acting head of the FAA, and our entire congressional delegation to focus on Alaska aviation safety needs.

The aviation sector, as you all know, is critical to our state. We have more pilots per capita than any state in the country. It’s critical to our economy. But, unfortunately, we have the highest rates of accidents, including fatalities, of any place in America.

In February 2020, the NTSB issued a report detailing these troubling numbers in Alaska on aviation accidents. My team and I got to work with the FAA and our private sector to launch the FAA Alaska Safety Initiative, “FAASI,” to focus on reducing the number of crashes in Alaska, to get better weather data reporting, and infrastructure for our community airports. As I've said to the FAA many times, it doesn't matter if it's expensive, we should have the infrastructure that every airport in the Lower 48 has. We passed the FAA reauthorization act last year. I was able to get many amendments for Alaska related to FAASI and an additional $25 million annual appropriation for this Alaska safety initiative.

You may have seen in our recent press conference, the first for the new Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy, that he and the FAA are very committed to this safety initiative in Alaska. That is going to be good news for all of us.

Fish

Russia

Another area where I’ve been pushing the federal government, with some success, is to help our fishermen and coastal communities, all of whom have experienced very rough times recently.

My team and I have made sure the new administration is focused on opening fisheries on time this spring. We also continue to focus like a laser on fully addressing the disastrous salmon runs that we’ve had on many of our iconic rivers—the Yukon, Kuskokwim and the Kenai, just to name a few.

We continue to keenly focus on leveling the playing field against Russia on unfair seafood trade.

Think about this: For almost the past 10 years, they could export as much fish into America’s markets as they wanted. And they are a huge fishing country. And we couldn’t export one fish into Russia.

It took a long time, but we fixed this unfair situation, working with the Biden administration, that was devastating our fishermen. Then the Russians tried to use a loophole through China to avoid these sanctions—the Chinese Communist loophole. But we shut that down as well.

The end result of this advocacy—and it’s been years of my team advocating on this—is that more Americans are now buying Alaskan “freedom fish” because we’ve shut down “communist fish” from China and Russia! We’re going to continue to focus on that, and that is good news for our state. But there is a lot more to do with regard to our fishermen and coastal communities.

Farm Bill

It’s time to go on offense with regard to our fishermen. I just talked to the President of the Senate about this. Think about it. Our fishermen are the farmers of the sea. American farmers get loans from the federal government. They get crop insurance and help when extreme weather hurts their harvests. They get federal relief when foreign markets are closed. Why shouldn’t the farmers of the sea get the same treatment from the federal government? I think they should.

The Farm Bill that we’re currently negotiating presents an opportunity to do just that: to de-risk fishing operations for our fishermen and their communities in the same way that the U.S. government does for American farmers.

My legislation is called the National Seafood Supply Act. It would begin to accomplish this through the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

I know all of you are very focused on these issues. We want to work closely with the Legislature on these important initiatives for our fishermen and Alaska’s coastal communities.

VI. One Pill Can Kill

Last year, I raised an issue that hits close to home for so many Alaskans, and that’s fentanyl. Overdose deaths in our state last year were up a staggering 45 percent. We’re going [up], while the rest of the country is going [down]. It is mostly our young people, our future, who are being poisoned and dying. We all can agree that’s unacceptable. A large part of this was the result of Biden administration’s open border policies, with fentanyl pouring in from Mexican drug cartels—who have made their way to Alaska—made with Chinese chemicals.

Well, not anymore. The Mexican drug cartels have rightly been designated terrorist organizations by the new administration, and illegal border crossings are down 93 percent.

But this fight is far from over. We need to do more, especially when it comes to prevention, to help educate our fellow Alaskans—particularly our young people—about this deadly drug.

The DEA says that 7 out of every 10 pills seized contain a lethal dose of fentanyl. Literally, one pill can kill.

That’s why my team and I launched the “One Pill Can Kill” campaign that attempts to highlight the extreme dangers of this drug.

Young Alaskans—our best ambassadors—have gotten involved to create public service announcements we hope to run on TV and radio stations warning each other and all Alaskans how “one pill can kill.”

If this campaign can even save one life of a precious young Alaskan, it will have been worth it. We need to work together on this, and this is another area where my office would love to partner with the Alaska Legislature.

VII. DOGE

Now, I want to address an issue that I’ve heard from a lot of you about: the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE.

Our national debt of over $36 trillion has reached dangerous, unsustainable levels. 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—spending more in interest on the debt than they do to protect their own nation. 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 Alaskan families—the high cost of living.

There is plenty of bipartisan blame to go around for this dangerous debt situation. I think most in this room understand that we have to root out wasteful spending, more responsibly spend the American people’s hard-earned dollars, and have a federal government that finally starts to live within its means. Otherwise, we’ll just be passing this mess onto our kids and grandkids. It is now a very significant threat.

Difficult choices need to be made. That’s what DOGE is doing, and they are making some notable progress. Do I like every decision that they’re making? No. But these are difficult decisions. Job losses are always difficult on families and communities, especially in tight-knit states like ours. They need to be done humanely and not randomly. But is the end goal of a smaller, more efficient federal government that lives within its means necessary at this point in time? Yes, and there has been a successful historical precedent.

President Clinton launched the National Partnership for Reinventing Government (NPRG) during his first year in office. Its goal was to dramatically shrink government and make it more efficient, which he did during his presidency. That initiative saved over $108 billion and it eliminated over 426,00 federal jobs during the Clinton administration.

These savings contributed to balancing the federal budget by 1998 under that administration. It was the first time and last time we actually had a budget surplus in decades.

I’ve spoken directly with DOGE leaders and Trump administration leaders regularly on this effort. They have emphasized that, during this process, there will be mistakes made, and they want to work with us to correct them. We have had some successes on getting decisions that were made, or going to be made—on things like GSA leases and frozen federal spending—we’ve had success in turning those around. The way we’ve been doing it is emphasizing that executive order I gave you.

If there is a decision that you're seeing that’s being made—and we're trying to track all of them—that impacts safety in Alaska or impacts our economy, we’ve been going to them and saying, “Look at that EO. You can't do that. You need to reverse it.”

Also in your handouts, there is a form. Take a look at it. If there are decisions on federal spending, or GSA leases, or federal employees, and you can make the argument to us, we’ll work with you, that that’s going to undermine our economy or safety, we will work it. Like I said, we’ve had some success on turning these things around when we think it negatively impacts those issues in our state. So we want to work with you on that.

VIII. Energy / Alaska Gasline

Let me conclude where I began. This [Last Frontier Lock-Up document] was a dream killer for Alaska. A federal government spending a heck of a lot of its time, with 70 executive orders—and tried to do more—shutting down our economy and jobs. This [Alaska-specific Trump’s EO], in my view, is a dream maker. We need to seize the big opportunities before us, together.

Several years ago, when I was DNR Commissioner, my team and I put forth the vision of a million barrels a day running through TAPS. This vision depended on a fair, stable fiscal regime, less burdensome state and federal regulations, and very importantly, a federal government that opened land to Alaska and cooperated with all of us.

The naysayers, not surprisingly, ridiculed this vision. But DNR recently estimated an official forecast of close to 670,000 barrels per day and a high forecast of 931,000 barrels a day by 2034. That’s good news. Not bad. No matter where you are on that, that will make your job a lot easier.

By the way, in the gallery today are Bill and Liz Armstrong of Armstrong Oil & Gas. Their wild-cat exploration activities—against very big odds over the last 20 years—have played an important role in this North Slope renaissance. I want to thank the Armstrongs very much.

An even bigger dream that has eluded our collective grasp for decades might also be a possibility now—the Alaska LNG Project.

As an Alaskan state and federal official, like many of you, I’ve been working on this project for over 15 years—it feels like most of my life—including when our Legislature passed the law establishing AGDC in 2013 and in 2014, keeping the project moving. In a number of my speeches to the Legislature, including last year, I’ve provided updates on this project: federal permits and billions of dollars in federal loan guarantees we’ve secured, foreign government interest in the project, and growing stakeholder alignment.

Now, truth be told, I saw the eye-rolling from some of you: “Sure, Dan, we’ve been hearing about this for decades.” I understand the skepticism, because we have been hearing about this for decades. But from my perspective, the transformative benefits to 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 one of the cinder blocks in that wall would give way.

This fall, I took my fourth trip to Japan and Korea in the last two years touting this project. I’ve hosted hundreds of meetings with energy companies, financiers, our own federal government officials, and, of course, Asian LNG importers, and government leaders from these countries.

Sometimes I’ve asked myself, is this really worth the effort or is it a futile endeavor, particularly with stonewalling from the Biden administration, including Biden’s climate czar, John Kerry, who unbelievably went overseas to tell our Asian allies not to buy American or Alaskan gas! Not good.

But we continued ramming against the AK LNG wall and, of late, a crack has developed—an 800-mile crack in this wall that shows undeniable progress.

It started with another handout that I have in your materials—this one on AK LNG. After the November election, I was in a meeting with President Trump, and I gave him, his national security advisor, his chief of staff, this document and directly pitched him and all of his team—and I’ve used this document to pitch all of his cabinet officials—even the ones who know nothing about energy—and his top officials on the huge benefits of this project to America. I said, “We need your full backing and support of this, Mr. President.”

I think you’ve seen, we’ve gotten it.

Take a look at the Trump administration day-one executive order again. AK LNG is mentioned twice as a priority for the United States of America. That is a really big deal.

Then, in the President’s first meeting with the Prime Minister of Japan, he and his Secretaries of Interior and Energy spent about half the meeting pressing with Japan’s leadership pressing the AK LNG Project, including with maps and discussions. Then, the President highlighted our project in his joint press conference with the Prime Minister of Japan, saying, “We’re going to get this done. Right, Prime Minister?” I don’t think the Prime Minister answer that, but it was okay.

Then, even bigger than the Japanese Prime Minister meeting, about two weeks ago at the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, the President spoke these words:

“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. It’s all set to go. The permitting is gotten.”

When the President of the United States, the most powerful person and country in the world, who is known as a deal-maker, says a project is his priority, people listen. And most importantly for us, foreign governments listen.

Now, as you can imagine, none of this progress happens by accident. To get the President to mention your big project or idea in the State of the Union address is not very easy. It’s kind of a daunting task. I worked very closely with Governor Dunleavy and our teams to get that done, to get the executive order on Alaska done, and we’ve been working that hard. But here’s the really important thing. We’re pushing on an open door. This President and this administration—and you can see it almost daily—they want to help us—whether it’s AKLNG, or the NPR-A, or ANWR, or so many other things.

I was down in Houston last week with Governor Dunleavy and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum—who's also the President's chair of the National Energy Dominance Council—at CERA Week, one of the largest oil and gas conference in the world. Alaska LNG was the talk of this conference. That’s really important.

Now, the project is still not right around the corner, but the corner is in sight.

Why have my team and I been working on this so hard and so relentlessly? Because this project would transform our state. Imagine the possibilities, what we could achieve with a nearly inexhaustible supply of our own affordable, clean energy 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.

It’s too big, the transformative possibilities too great not try with everything we have. So we’re going to keep smashing into that wall.

By the way, for the naysayers and pessimists out there in the media and other places—and I know there are many—my question to you is: What is the alternative for the people we represent? Importing gas from Canada or a corrupt country like Mexico? If we do that, energy prices are going to double or triple for our homes, for our businesses, for our schools, for our hospitals. Low-cost energy will be closed for a generation, and good-paying jobs, and the possibilities that go with this project, will flee our state, and so will our kids.

The Trump administration, from the President on down, has made AK LNG a top priority. We want to work with you all. I respectfully ask that all of you to do the same.

I know you have a lot of hard work to do to make sure this project gets the proper scrutiny and due diligence, and that’s a big part of your job. But we have to move fast. We have an opportunity!

As you’re evaluating this project and thinking of creative ways to spur it, not stop it, I’m asking all of you—all of us collectively as Alaskans—to not lose sight of the vision that built our state. The vision that’s still brimming with strength, invention, energy, and opportunity.

As President Trump said about the gasline, “There's never been anything like that one. It will be truly spectacular.” Working together at this moment of opportunity, we just might pull it off, and if we do, it would be truly spectacular for our state!

Thank you again. I appreciate working with all of you. It’s an honor of a lifetime to represent you and work with all of you as your United States Senator. Thank you.

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