Today’s Key Takeaways – Japan exploring AKLNG off-take agreement. House advance road to Ambler district. Central Yukon region loses restrictions on oil, gas and mining development.
GAS:
Japan explores Alaskan LNG purchases as part of $7 bln energy deal, US-Japan statement shows
Reuters, September 4, 2025
Japan has confirmed its commitment to an annual $7 billion worth of energy purchases from the United States while exploring their new Alaskan liquefied natural gas (LNG) off-take agreement, a joint statement on the bilateral trade deal showed on Friday.
The U.S. will also ensure it applies its lowest tariff rates to Japanese pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, showed the statement, released by Tokyo after President Donald Trump signed an order to lower tariffs on Japanese goods to implement a deal announced in July.
MINING:
House Republicans vote to advance building road to Ambler Mining District
Wil Butler, KTUU, September 4, 2025
Joint Resolution moves onto the Senate
A Biden-era administration rule preventing the potential building of a 211-mile road from the Dalton Highway to reach the Ambler Mining District was officially rejected in a tight vote Wednesday led by House Republicans.
The vote officially rebukes a rule putting 13 million acres of Alaska land in the government’s hand, something Alaska’s lone representative said, if rebuked, would increase economic opportunities for the state and reopen potential to the decades-long push to create Ambler Road.
“At the end of the day, we hear from voices across America, but we don’t hear from the voices of the people of my home state,” Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, said in the House’s chambers Wednesday.
The rule put 13 million acres of Alaska land under enhanced protections in November of 2024, according to Pew, saying it “balances conservation and other uses on lands and waters that 20 sovereign Tribes have used for hunting, fishing, gathering, and cultural practices for centuries.”
The Biden administration in a “record of decision” killed Ambler Road prospects in June of 2024, saying the land protected under the BLM was protected from resource develop because of expected harm to subsistence fishing and hunting Alaskan villages rely on.
“Lifting protections on these lands will dramatically harm the health and wellbeing of our Tribal communities and threaten the continued vitality of our sacred ways of life,” United Tribes of Bristol Bay Executive Director Alannah Hurley previously told Alaska’s News Source.
In May of 2024, NANA, a for-profit Alaska Native Corporation, withdrew involvement from the Ambler Access Project over concerns the “project applicant has been unable to make meaningful progress towards these criteria. Specifically, ensuring controlled permitted access along the entire route that includes NANA in management of access.”
Begich, though, said he had consulted with Alaskans, including Alaska Natives, and on Thursday concluded the rule was “federal overreach.”
“[The rule] locks up more than 13 million acres of land in Alaska, part of a region that spans 56 million acres in my state,” he said on the House floors. “The plan threatens economic opportunity and undermines national security while ignoring the needs of everyday Alaskans.”
Alaska’s News Source reached out to the entire congressional delegation for comment and asked Begich for an interview. Murkowski’s office was the only response as of publication.
“Senator Murkowski supports the nullification of the final CYRMP and is cosponsoring the resolution introduced by Senator Sullivan,” Joe Plesha, Murkowski’s spokesperson, told Alaska’s News Source Thursday. “Last year’s final plan included too many administrative restrictions and infringements while failing to lift Public Land Orders … Reopening this plan will allow BLM to go back, do this right, and select a more balanced option.”
Both Senators Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, introduced a resolution with identical language that was referred to committee in July. Now, the joint resolution which passed the House moves onto the Senate for final passage.
The joint resolution was passed through the House in a 215-205 vote. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, was the only Republican who abandoned party lines and voted against the measure. Alaska’s News Source reached out to Fitzpatrick’s D.C. office for a statement on his vote, which the office did not provide.
Republicans Tim Burchett, TN, Wesley Hunt, TX, David Rouzer, NC, and Democrats Daniel Goldman, NY, Ayanna Pressley, MA, and Eric Swalwell, CA, did not vote.
82% of Alaska communities and FAA-recognized locations are not accessible through roadways, according to the Alaska Department of Transportation, but the Trump administration has been working towards creating more roads in Alaska – something environmental advocates has been raising the alarm over.
Weeks ago, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced they were taking steps to rescind the Roadless Rule, a rule passed in 2001 that protects upwards of 58 million acres of federal land from road building and logging, according to NPR.
Alaska has tens of millions of these acres within its borders, according to previous Alaska News Source reporting, including the Tongass and Chugach National forests.
POLITICS:
HOUSE GOP MOVES TO UNDO BIDEN-ERA LAND MANAGEMENT RULES: Late last night, members of the House voted in favor of walking back the Biden administration’s land management plan for Montana, North Dakota, and Alaska.
The details: Lawmakers voted on three measures disapproving of former President Joe Biden‘s Resource Management Plan Amendments for these states, which outline plans for managing certain public lands while also maximizing resource development. Republicans claimed Biden’s RMP for these lands substantially limited or completely blocked fossil fuel and mining production.
In a 211-208 vote, Republicans advanced a measure reversing the BLM RMP Amendment in Miles City, Montana, which determined that more than 1.7 million acres was unavailable for leasing to lower greenhouse gas emissions.
The second measure passed, in a 215-211 vote, repealed a Biden BLM ruling for North Dakota that limited development of fossil fuels to areas within 4 miles of existing mines.
The third and final measure passed in a 215-210 vote, reversing the Biden administration’s restriction of pipeline, oil, and gas development on around 13.3 million acres of land in the Central Yukon region of Alaska.
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy, September 4, 2025