AKLNG, U.S. Gold Mining See Upside while Oil Fumes.

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Today’s Key Takeaways: Tension between oil executives and Trump over climate rule shake up. FERC and AKLNG Under New Executive Orders. U.S. Gold Mining’s AK Project Benefits from New Executive Orders. Meet Alaska’s freshmen legislators.

OIL:

Oil Executives Fume as Trump Shakes Up Climate Rules Again
Irina Slav, OilPrice.Com, January 26, 2025

  • President Trump’s reversal of Biden’s climate policies has angered Big Oil executives, who invested heavily in low-carbon technologies under the previous administration.
  • The withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and the removal of subsidies threaten to make Big Oil’s transition investments stranded assets.
  • Despite the positive impact on their core business, oil executives are wary of Trump’s unpredictable energy policies and the potential long-term consequences for the industry.

President Donald Trump has been busy reversing the Biden administration’s so-called climate policies from the moment he was sworn in. He declared a national energy emergency, revoked the Biden ban on new LNG export capacity, and suspended some $300 billion in funding for transition projects in the country. With that, he has made one unlikely group angry: Big Oil executives.

The 47th president’s political agenda is nothing if not oil and gas friendly. In fact, oil and gas are among Trump’s top priorities, and he has wasted no time in making life easier for the industry players after four years of extra regulatory and political pressure under Biden. Yet oil executives’ apparent frustration with Trump’s reversal of Biden policies is unlikely and perhaps surprising on the surface.

Below this surface sits all the money that Big Oil invested in its own transition, under pressure, indeed, but quite a lot of money. The projects this money has been invested in may well become stranded assets now, in an ironic twist of environmentalists’ warnings that oil and gas fields are about to become stranded assets in a transitional world.

Reuters reported this week that some in the oil industry were unhappy about Trump’s withdrawal of the United States from the Paris Agreement. This is the second time Trump has done it and, again according to Reuters, it would jeopardize global efforts to reverse global climatic trends. Not only that, but the withdrawal would reduce the availability of cash for transition investment and confuse investors as the paths of the U.S. and Europe diverge.

GAS:

Early Assessment of the Effect of President Trump’s New Executive Orders on FERC Infrastructure Projects
Emily P. Mallen, Stephen J. Hug, Scott Daniel Johnson, Ben N. Reiter, Sharmila P. DasAkin, January 24, 2025

On January 20, 2025, and throughout his first week in office, President Trump signed a series of executive orders (EOs) outlining his priorities for the domestic energy industry and setting forth policy preferences that rebuke former President Biden’s focus on mitigating the effects of climate change and safeguarding environmental justice communities. Although the energy-related EOs that have been issued to date have been light on specific policy directives, they evince an administration that is focused on expanding the production of fossil fuels and skeptical of the prior administration’s efforts to support the growth of renewable and zero-carbon resources.

While the Akin team is continuing to assess the impact of the EOs on the energy industry, this article reviews the potential impact of these EOs on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), an agency with statutory authority over the permitting of interstate natural gas pipeline infrastructure and liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals, as well as related authority granted to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to authorize LNG exports.

Unlike DOE, which is led by a cabinet-level Secretary and subject to Presidential directives in EOs, FERC is an independent agency that has taken the view that it need not follow all executive directives. However, the agency’s Chair, who traditionally is of the same political party as the President, often incorporates the current administration’s policy preferences into agency decision-making.1 On his first day in office, President Trump appointed sitting Commissioner Mark Christie, a Republican, to helm the agency as Chair, displacing former Chair Willie L. Phillips, a Democrat. Commissioner Phillips has not yet announced his future plans, although removed Chairs often resign before their terms conclude.

The following EOs appear to have the greatest potential to impact FERC natural gas infrastructure policy:

  • Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential: This EO declares the policy of the United States to include the expedition of permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects in Alaska, as well as to prioritize the state’s LNG potential, including the sale and transportation of Alaskan LNG at home and abroad. Among other things, the EO orders the heads of all executive departments and agencies to “prioritize the development of Alaska’s LNG potential, including the permitting of all necessary pipeline and export infrastructure related to the Alaska LNG Project.”
    • FERC has already authorized the Alaska LNG project under NGA Section 3, which consists of LNG terminal facilities capable of producing 20 million metric tons per year for export as well as an approximately 800-mile feeder pipeline to transport gas from Alaska’s North Slope to the Kenai Peninsula. This decision was upheld in the D.C. Circuit. A parallel decision by DOE authorizing LNG exports from the terminal is still pending before the court. If the project ever reaches a Final Investment Decision to break ground, this EO provides grounds for FERC to expedite its notices to proceed with construction.

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MINING:

U.S. GOLDMINING WELCOMES PRESIDENTIAL EXECUTIVE ORDER TO UNLEASH ALASKA’S EXTRAORDINARY RESOURCE POTENTIAL

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Jan. 27, 2025 /PRNewswire/ – U.S. GoldMining Inc. (NASDAQ: USGO) (“U.S. GoldMining” or the “Company“) applauds the Executive Order, “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential“, signed by the President of the United States on January 20, 2025. U.S. GoldMining believes this broad ranging initiative has the potential to significantly benefit the mining industry and the state of Alaska by fostering new investments, streamlining the resource development permitting process, and ultimately delivering significant economic growth to Alaska.

The Presidential Executive Order is designed to boost the mining industry by efficiently and effectively maximizing the development and production of natural resources located on Federal and State lands in Alaska and expediting the permitting and leasing of its natural resource projects The full text of the Executive Order is available at: Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential – The White House.

Tim Smith, Chief Executive Officer of U.S. GoldMining, commented: “Alaska is entering a transformative period. The Company’s 100% owned Whistler Gold-Copper Project (“Project“) located in Alaska is already set to benefit from strong political support for responsible resource exploration and development at the state level in Alaska. We greatly appreciated Governor Dunleavy’s visit to the Project in the summer of 2023, and we continue to support Alaska’s ‘Roads to Resources‘ initiative which includes the proposed West Susitna Access Road to the Project.

The President’s prioritization of Alaska’s resource development with this order has the potential to usher in a new era of discovery, growth, and project development for the Alaskan resource sector, which could deliver strong economic prosperity in Alaska, and economic and resource security for the nation.

The future potential mine development of the Project and Alaska’s proposed West Susitna Access Road are well placed to benefit from the regulatory certainty provided by the President’s Executive Order. I am more encouraged than ever about the advancements of the Project and its long-term potential to create jobs for local Alaskans, grow the economy, and contribute to domestic resource supply for copper, a critical mineral essential for national energy security.”

POLITICS:

Meet the 11 freshmen of the Alaska Legislature
Iris Samuels, Anchorage Daily News, January 27, 2025

New lawmakers arriving in Juneau are navigating the launch of their legislative careers.

Among the 60 state lawmakers who convened in Juneau this week are 11 who are serving in the Legislature for the first time. Among them are best friends, parents navigating a cross-state move, pet owners who left furry friends in their far-off districts, and professionals navigating transitions from jobs and hobbies to the so-called “Juneau bubble.”

Meet the 11 freshmen