Energy Secretary Chris Wright calls AKLNG “probably single most important energy infrastructure project of this whole administration.”
Alaska LNG back in focus: The state of Alaska has been thrust to the center of the Trump administration’s energy policy, as officials look to increase oil and gas production up North. This is all tied to a long-awaited, and controversial, liquefied natural gas pipeline that would stretch the length of the state.
Energy Secretary Chris Wright has called the LNG project “probably our single most important energy infrastructure project of this whole administration,” Axios reported this morning.
In order to finance the project, Wright said, the administration is working to help the pipeline developer finalize commercial offtake and equity financing agreements, but the Energy Department’s loan office could also support the construction.
If you forgot, the 800-mile pipeline is intended to start in Prudhoe Bay, along the Arctic Ocean, where the existing Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, also around 800 miles long, begins. The project will also include the construction of a liquefaction facility to cool and condense the gas for exporting. Permitting for the project first started in 2014 and was finally completed in December.
Cold water on increased production: While the administration is using CERAWeek to encourage domestic oil and gas producers to ramp up their operations amid high prices, the largest fossil fuel trade group is doubtful that will happen.
“No one is going to be making significant investments in production when they don’t know what the duration of this is going to be,” Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, told Bloomberg . “Right now, we have a supply disruption, not a demand increase.”
From the Washington Examiner, Daily on Energy, March 24, 2026
Resource development provides over 95% of the North Slope’s tax revenue, which supports essential services in the remote region, including schools, health clinics, water and sewer systems, and wildlife management.
Successful oil and gas lease sale in Alaska a win for Trump administration and Alaska Natives
Kevin Killough, Just The News, March 24, 2026
The Department of Interior held an oil and gas lease sale this week for the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska (NPR-A). It was by every measure a huge success. The sale resulted in 187 leases and generated $163 million.
The sale brought in some of the big players in oil and gas, including Shell, Exxon, and ConocoPhillips. It signaled a lot of interest from the industry in oil and gas development on Alaska’s North Slope.
It was a big win for Trump’s unleashing American energy policy, but it’s also a win for the North Slope Iñupiat Alaska natives.
Consistent advocacy and messaging
Resource development provides over 95% of the North Slope’s tax revenue, which supports essential services in the remote region, including schools, health clinics, water and sewer systems, and wildlife management.
The Biden administration would often say it was listening to indigenous voices, but when those voices collided with the administration’s climate goals, Native Americans took a back seat. Former President Joe Biden passed regulation after regulation restricting resource development, including oil, gas, and mining.
The Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE), a 501(c)(4) nonprofit that advocates for the Arctic Slope communities, spent years trying to get a meeting with Deb Haaland, Biden’s interior secretary. She finally sat down with them in the summer of 2024.
“Things have changed quite a bit. And I think it’s a testament to our membership, our advocacy and our constant, consistent messaging, no matter who’s in office,” since the VOICE was founded in 2015, Nagruk Harcharek, president of VOICE, told Just the News.
Larry Fink, who leads the world’s largest asset manager, says the US “overdid” the focus on young people going to university and idolizing jobs careers in banking while undervaluing skilled trades.
We need more plumbers and fewer lawyers in AI age, says BlackRock boss
Simon Jack, Nick Edser, BBC, March 26, 2026
Society should respect plumbing and electrician careers as artificial intelligence (AI) replaces some office jobs, the boss of US financial giant BlackRock has told the BBC.
Larry Fink, who leads the world’s largest asset manager, says the US “overdid” the focus on young people going to university and idolizing jobs careers in banking while undervaluing skilled trades.
In a wide-ranging exclusive interview, he also warned if the price of oil hits $150 (£122) a barrel it will trigger a global recession.
BlackRock is a financial colossus, controlling assets worth $14 trillion, and is one of the biggest investors in many of the world’s largest companies.
Its size and spread gives Fink, who is one of the eight co-founders of the business, which started in 1988, a unique insight into the health of the global economy.
Earlier this week, in his annual letter to shareholders, Fink said the AI boom would create an enormous amount of jobs “related to electricians and welders and plumbers”.
In contrast, there might not be as much demand for some office jobs and this could lead to a rethink about what roles are needed as “society is changing and evolving”.
He said this meant we needed to change our perception of skilled trades.
