President Donald Trump has accomplished in less than a year what Alaska’s energy industry spent four years waiting for: a sweeping rollback of federal restrictions that threatened to keep some of America’s most valuable oil reserves beyond the reach of developers.
Under Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, the Trump administration has moved aggressively to reverse policies enacted under former President Joe Biden, reopening opportunities for oil exploration across millions of acres of federal land.
The changes represent a major victory for Alaska’s energy producers and Republican lawmakers who spent years accusing Washington of undermining American energy independence.
