Alaska Energy Metals announces that the Nikolai Nickel project has been accepted for coverage on the FAST-41 Transparency Dashboard by the US Permitting Council.
Permitting Council Executive Director: “We are proud to support more mining projects that will strengthen the U.S. economy and reduce our reliance on foreign nations.
The FAST-41 listing will focus initially on the rehabilitation and extension of the existing Rainy Creek Mining Trail, including installation of two temporary bridges, and an on-site camp.
The road and camp project will facilitate ground access, greatly reduce costs, and accelerate timelines for advanced exploration and development of the Eureka deposit, situated on the Nikolai project. Eureka is the largest known nickel resource in the US and contains multiple critical metals: nickel, copper, cobalt, chromium, platinum, and palladium, as well as iron.
The listing will result in full transparency and coordination amongst the federal permitting agencies and set firm timelines on Federal permitting milestones.
The state’s annual North Slope oil and gas lease sale drew brisk bidding that was dominated by small independent companies, some of which were new entrants to Alaska, officials reported on Wednesday.
The Division of Oil and Gas said nine companies submitted a combined $16.97 million in high bids for 271 onshore tracts in the central North Slope.
It was the most tracts sold in a North Slope lease sale since the annual areawide leasing program started in 1999, and it was the highest amount of money submitted in high bids since 2014, when 254 North Slope tracts were sold for $39.85 million.
The sale had offered 3,121 tracts over about 5 million state-owned acres.
In a statement, John Crowther, acting commissioner of the Alaska Department of Natural Resources, said the sale results show evidence of a continuing North Slope oil “renaissance.”
The U.S. Export-Import Bank (EXIM) will invest $100 billion to secure U.S. and allied supply chains for critical minerals, nuclear energy and liquefied natural gas, the organization’s chair John Jovanovic told the Financial Times in an interview published on Sunday.
The first tranche of deals will include projects in Egypt, Pakistan, and Europe, Jovanovic told the newspaper, adding that the West was over-reliant on supplies of these critical materials that “are no longer fair”.
“We can’t do anything else that we’re trying to do without these underlying critical raw material supply chains being secure, stable and functioning,” he was quoted saying.
Jovanovic told the FT that the bank’s early deals would include a credit insurance guarantee for $4 billion of natural gas being delivered to Egypt by New York-based commodities group Hartree Partners, and a $1.25 billion loan for the Reko Diq mine being developed by Barrick Mining in Pakistan.
The bank has $100 billion left to deploy of the $135 billion authorized by Congress, he said.
The Energy Workforce & Technology Council is backing new legislation that would move LNG approval authority from the Department of Energy to FERC, aiming to streamline project reviews and reduce delays for U.S. LNG facilities.
(P&GJ) — The Energy Workforce & Technology Council (EWTC) is praising House passage of H.R. 1949, a bill that would overhaul how U.S. LNG export projects are approved by shifting key authority to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The “Unlocking Our Domestic LNG Potential Act,” introduced by Rep. August Pfluger, would remove longstanding Natural Gas Act restrictions and streamline federal oversight of LNG facilities.
If enacted, the measure would transfer full siting, construction, and operational approval authority for LNG terminals from the Department of Energy to FERC — a move supporters say would provide more certainty for developers facing long review timelines.
“America should not be tying its own hands when the world is demanding more reliable American energy,” EWTC President Tim Tarpley said. “This bill cuts out needless bureaucracy, strengthens our LNG leadership, and gives operators the clarity they need to build, invest, and compete. American LNG is a win for the US and a win for our allies abroad. The Unlocking our Domestic LNG Potential Act is a smart, straightforward step that keeps American energy moving forward.”
EWTC said the legislation would help clear regulatory bottlenecks that have slowed multiple LNG projects in recent years. The group also emphasized that faster federal reviews support the broader supply chain required to build and operate LNG export terminals.
The Council urged the Senate to advance the legislation, calling it critical for U.S. energy security and for meeting rising global LNG demand.
Areas included in draft offshore drilling plan: Alaska’s Beaufort Sea (2), Chukchi Sea (2), Gulf of Alaska, Shumagin, Kodiak, Hope Basin, Norton Basin, Navarin Basin, St. George Basin, High Arctic, Aleutian Basin, Aleutian Arc, Bowers Basin, and St. Matthew-Hall Planning Areas (1 each)
The Trump administration proposes to open nearly all of the oceans off Alaska to potential oil and gas drilling.
The draft offshore leasing plan includes the Bering Sea, the Gulf of Alaska, and other areas important to the fishing industry. It’s part of a national proposal that includes the entire coast of California, where drilling is fiercely unpopular.
“By moving forward with the development of a robust, forward-thinking leasing plan, we are ensuring that America’s offshore industry stays strong, our workers stay employed, and our nation remains energy dominant for decades to come,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in an emailed announcement.
The top Democrat on the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee, Rep. Jared Huffman of California, pledged to fight, in court and in Congress. Huffman said it doesn’t make sense for Alaska either.
“I just think it’s incredibly reckless,” he said. “I mean, we know what the seafood economy means to the state of Alaska.”
The plan goes beyond what Alaska advocates of offshore development have favored in the past. In 2018, Alaska’s all-Republican delegation to Congress praised an offshore plan that included lease sales in Cook Inlet and the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. But they asked the first Trump administration to remove the Bering Sea and the Gulf from consideration.
The plan released Thursday is a “first analysis,” with two more planned before final approval. If it survives, the first lease sale would be in the Beaufort.
It’s not clear oil companies would be interested. Shell spent 10 years and $7 billion trying to drill there before giving up on offshore Arctic exploration.
“Our economic competitiveness, energy security, and environmental goals all depend on reforming how we build, not how we delay.”
Efficient permitting isn’t a partisan luxury – it’s a national imperative. As our nation confronts rising energy demand, aging infrastructure, and growing pressure on our natural lands, the question is not whether we should reform our permitting processes; it’s how quickly and boldly we will. Removing politics from the process isn’t about stifling debate; it’s about ensuring that decisions are made on facts, timelines, and transparency rather than ideological gridlock, outdated regulations, and litigious activists. With the passage of the SPEED Act out of the House Natural Resources Committee, Congress is one step closer to enacting meaningful reform.
The policy imperative is clear: streamline, clarify, and accelerate the permitting process – without sacrificing environmental protection. The National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) has devolved into a procedural maze of redundant reviews, legal delays, and speculative analysis. The result? Years of delay, billions of dollars in cost overruns, and costly impacts on energy consumers, taxpayers, and the economy.
The stakes are high. The U.S. produced more energy in 2024 than ever before yet rising electricity demand is straining our grid and higher prices are squeezing household budgets. At the same time, our forests and public lands need active management to reduce wildfire risk — but meaningful conservation efforts are often delayed by slow permitting. In short: our economic competitiveness, energy security, and environmental goals all depend on reforming how we build, not how we delay.
The SPEED Act offers concrete reforms: narrowing the scope of analysis under NEPA to factors that bear a “reasonably close causal relationship” to the project; broadening the use of categorical exclusions where appropriate; and avoiding redundant federal reviews when states or tribes have already conducted comparable analysis. On the judicial side, the bill reforms standing and statute-of-limitations provisions so that genuine community voices are heard — without endless procedural games blocking investment and development.
“This ruling not only affirms the integrity of DNR’s work but also protects the rights of Alaska Native Corporations and provides certainty for future development.”
The decision has implications for mining and drilling projects on private and federal lands, experts say
The Alaska Supreme Court has upheld state regulators’ decision to grant permits for a large gold mine planned for Southwest Alaska, bringing the proposed Donlin project a step closer to construction.
In a unanimous ruling published Friday, the court’s five justices said the Alaska Department of Natural Resources did not need to consider the environmental impact of the entire proposed Donlin Mine when it approved water use permits and a right-of-way permit needed for a natural gas pipeline intended to power the mine.
Their ruling has implications for many major development projects on private land and likely applies to projects on federal land as well, such as the large oil projects on Alaska’s North Slope.
“This decision is a major win for Alaska,” said Attorney General-designee Stephen Cox in a written statement. “The Court rightly recognized that the State’s permitting process met constitutional standards and that Article VIII (of the Alaska Constitution) does not extend to lands owned by Alaska Native Corporations or other private entities. This ruling not only affirms the integrity of DNR’s work but also protects the rights of Alaska Native Corporations and provides certainty for future development.”
The natural gas pipeline will stretch across state land, but the mine itself will be dug on land whose subsurface rights are owned by Calista Corporation, a regional Alaska Native corporation.
Writing on behalf of the court, Justice Dario Borghesan said the distinction is important.
“Because these are private resources, rather than state resources, the Department was not required to consider the cumulative impacts of their development when deciding whether to allow the use of state waters and access over state lands to develop the mine,” he wrote.
The ruling says that to approve the gas pipeline, regulators needed to consider only the impact of the pipeline, not of the mine it allows.
Until Friday, a 2013 decision by the Alaska Supreme Court known as REDOIL had required regulators to “take into account all aspects of a project” and consider the “cumulative impacts” when issuing permits for work on state land.
Friday’s decision somewhat limits that precedent, particularly for Alaska’s North Slope oil and gas industry, where most new drilling is taking place on federal land, not state land.
Definition to Protect Water Resources, Accelerate Growth & Economic Opportunity
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin, together with Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Adam Telle, today announced a proposed rule that would establish a clear, durable, common-sense definition of “waters of the United States” (WOTUS) under the Clean Water Act. The proposal, unveiled at an event today at EPA headquarters in Washington, DC, follows the Supreme Court decision in Sackett and delivers on the Trump Administration’s commitment to protect America’s waters while providing the regulatory certainty needed to support our nation’s farmers who feed and fuel the world and advance EPA’s Powering the Great American Comeback initiative.
The agencies developed this proposed rule using input from multiple sources, including a pre-proposal recommendations docket, information from nine public listening sessions, and consultation comments from states, tribes, and local governments. Key proposed revisions include:
Defining key terms like “relatively permanent,” “continuous surface connection,” and “tributary” to appropriately delineate the scope of WOTUS consistent with the Clean Water Act and Supreme Court precedent;
Establishing that jurisdictional tributaries must connect to traditional navigable waters either directly or through other features that provide predictable and consistent flow;
Reaffirming that wetlands must be indistinguishable from jurisdictional waters through a continuous surface connection, which means that they must touch a jurisdictional water and hold surface water for a requisite duration year after year;
Strengthening state and tribal decision-making authority by providing clear regulatory guidelines while recognizing their expertise in local land and water resources;
Preserving and clarifying exclusions for certain ditches, prior converted cropland, and waste treatment systems; Adding a new exclusion for groundwater; and
Incorporating locally familiar terminology, such as “wet season,” to help determine whether a water body qualifies as WOTUS;
In addition, the limitation to wetlands that have surface water at least during the wet season and abut a jurisdictional water will further limit the scope of permafrost wetlands that are considered to have a continuous surface connection under the proposed rule. These proposed changes are intended to provide clarity and consistency to the continuous surface connection definition.
When finalized, the rule will cut red tape and provide predictability, consistency, and clarity for American industry, energy producers, the technology sector, farmers, ranchers, developers, businesses, and landowners for permitting under the Clean Water Act.
Crude oil production in Alaska is poised to reach to its highest level in nearly a decade, driven by strong performance from new North Slope projects, according to the latest forecast from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).
EIA now expects Alaska to produce 477,000 b/d in 2026, the highest annual average since 2018.
After decades of steady decline, Alaska’s oil output is set for a significant rebound. EIA projects a 13% increase—about 55,000 b/d—in 2026, marking the state’s largest year-over-year growth since the 1980s.
The turnaround is led by two major developments on the North Slope.
ConocoPhillips’ Nuna project, which began producing in December 2024, has shown steady growth. The field produced 7,000 b/d in August 2025 and is expected to reach 20,000 b/d at its peak, helping offset declines in legacy fields.
A larger boost is expected from Pikka Phase 1, jointly owned by Santos and Repsol. The project is scheduled to begin production in first-quarter 2026 and reach peak production of 80,000 b/d by mid-2026, nearly 20% of total Alaska oil production in 2025.
EIA noted that wells from these new projects outperform most existing wells in the state. Recent production records from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission show that new wells produce about 480 boe/d, whereas 78% of Alaskan wells produced less than 400 boe/d in 2023.
The agency said its upgraded 2026 outlook reflects Santos’s accelerated ramp-up to peak production for the Pikka Phase 1 project and recent well tests demonstrating high productivity.
The API sees “a cultural moment, where people understand how important the oil and gas industry is.”
As Taylor Sheridan’s wildly popular West Texas oil drama, Landman, returned Sunday for its second season, the American Petroleum Institute also premiered new content: three 30-second ads featuring real workers in the oil patches.
The TV show, which stars Billy Bob Thornton as Tommy Norris, had more than 5 million viewers watch last year’s season premiere and broke streaming records. It also helped vault the modern oilfield into the pop culture spotlight.
API president and CEO Mike Sommers told The Dallas Morning News that Landman, like other shows in Sheridan’s portfolio, is a reflection of the “current culture.”
To be sure, the fossil fuels industry has its share of critics, particularly in an environmental movement motivated by climate change, and the imperative to shift away from oil and gas.
But at least for now, “I think we are finally in a moment, a cultural moment, where people understand how important the oil and gas industry is,” Sommers said.
“There has been a lot of talk about the so-called ‘energy transition’ over the course of the last five years, but I think we’re finally at this point where people are starting to understand ‘energy reality,’ and that oil and gas are going to play a key role in our energy future for decades and decades to come,” he added.
There are growing expectations that US natural gas demand is set to jump in the coming years, driven by increasing LNG export capacity, and stronger demand from the power sector with further investment in data centres. But how much potential demand could we see in the years ahead?
LNG and power sectors to drive US gas demand
The US is the largest natural gas consumer, using around 90 billion cubic feet per day, which is equivalent to more than 20% of global gas demand. US natural gas demand has grown at almost 5% per year over the last decade. This growth has coincided with the shale revolution, which has led to significant growth in US natural gas supply, offering consumers a cheap source of energy. This has come at a time when the theme of decarbonisation has only grown, which has seen coal’s share in the power mix fall, after peaking in 2007.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has unveiled six new mining and energy developments added to Ottawa’s fast-track list — from the Ksi Lisims LNG terminal and transmission line in British Columbia to Ontario’s Crawford nickel project and Quebec’s Matawinie graphite mine.
The projects span every region of the country and are part of a national effort to accelerate critical minerals production and clean energy infrastructure.
As Landman returns for Season 2, we’re proud to spotlight the real landmen who drive America’s energy leadership. Read more in @axios ⬇️https://t.co/7RZH7LISI2
