Today’s Key Takeaways: Rolling back restrictions on NPRA. Trump’s energy team pushing Alaska gas. Japan looks at partnership with U.S. with critical minerals. Senate’s turn on tax bill.
OIL:
Trump Administration to Roll Back Biden’s Curbs on Alaska Oil Drilling
Charles Kennedy, OilPrice.Com, June 2, 2025
The Trump Administration is working to roll back the severe restrictions on oil and gas drilling in Alaska imposed by the Biden administration, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has said.
The Biden administration suspended in 2021 oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, months after former President Joe Biden took over from Trump’s first term in office.
Biden also finalized a strategy to help protect federal lands, which includes restricting access to drilling and mining in a large part of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A). In 2024, the rule restricted access to drilling and mining on more than 13 million acres in the NPR-A.
Now the Trump Administration is looking to open up areas for drilling again, to follow up on President Donald Trump’s executive order from Day One to “unleash Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential.”
In March, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum took immediate steps to unleash Alaska’s untapped resources. The Interior said the Bureau of Land Management would pursue steps to expand opportunities for exploration and development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The BLM will also work towards partial revocation of public land withdrawals that will help solidify the path forward for the proposed Ambler Road and Alaska LNG pipeline projects, the Interior said in March.
At a meeting with industry executives and elected Alaska officials on Sunday, Secretary Burgum said “We’re unlocking Alaska’s energy, putting American workers first, and empowering our nation with innovation — not regulation.”
“Alaska has an opportunity to allow us to do one of the mandates of the Trump administration, which is to sell energy to our friends and allies, so they don’t have to buy it from our adversaries,” Burgum said, as carried by the Anchorage Daily News.
This week, the top U.S. energy officials will also host an event in Alaska with officials from South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan to tout the $44-billion Alaska LNG project for which the United States is seeking Asian investors.
GAS:
Trump’s energy team heads to Alaska amid gas pipeline push
Carlos Anchondo, E & E News, June 2, 2025 (subscription required)
Top administration officials will be promoting gas exports alongside Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
Sustainable energy may be getting top billing at a conference in Alaska this week, but much of the focus will be on a sprawling pipeline and natural gas export project.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy (R) is scheduled to sit down at the confab with CEO Brendan Duval of the Glenfarne Group, the lead developer of the Alaska LNG project. Glenfarne assumed the role of top developer earlier this year, roughly five yearsafter federal agencies approved the project and its planned exports.
Three high-profile members of President Donald Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council are also making the trek to Alaska — Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. And although a news release from Dunleavy’s office didn’t directly mention the Alaska LNG project, Burgum and Wright said Trump is taking a different approach than former President Joe Biden on the issue of Alaskan resources.
“While the last administration tried to shut down Alaska at nearly every turn, President Trump understands that unleashing Alaska’s energy potential is critical to restoring American energy dominance,” Wright said in the May 12 announcement released by Dunleavy’s office.
MINING:
Japan proposes rare earth cooperation with US in trade talks
Mining.Com, Jume 1, 2025
Japan is looking to bolster its economic ties with the United States by establishing a partnership around critical minerals such as rare earths, local media reported.
According to The Yomiuri Shimbun, it is believed that Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba presented this proposal in a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Thursday as part of the negotiation process to bring down the US trade deficit with Japan.
Amongst the topics discussed, the newspaper reported, were greater cooperation in economic security, including collaborations in rare earths.
Rare earth minerals have taken centre stage in America’s trade tussle with China, which weaponized its strong position in the supply chain by restricting exports to the US.
POLITICS:
House’s Tax Bill is a Win for Energy Abundance; Now it’s the Senate’s Turn – IER
Tom Pyle, Institute for Energy Research, May 26, 2025
Fueling The Conversation, Week of May 26th, 2025
Since the election of President Trump and the Republican-majority Congress, we’ve been stressing the benefits of repealing the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA) green energy tax credits as part of the “big beautiful” reconciliation bill.
As I argued recently in a Washington Times op-ed, “Republicans should start with the low-hanging fruit by slashing corporate subsidies. This move checks all the boxes. Subsidies distort markets by propping up politically favored firms, often at the expense of more innovative or efficient competitors. … It’s a rare policy that aligns Mr. Trump’s promises with political and fiscal reality.”
Last week, House Republicans recognized this reality by passing their new tax and spending bill, the One Big Beautiful Bill Act. In contrast to previous iterations of the bill, which included lengthy phase outs for the so-called clean electricity production and investment tax credits, the new version phases out these credits by 2028 and includes a construction-start deadline that prevents any companies that haven’t started construction in 60 days after the bill’s enactment from receiving them. While falling short of a full and immediate repeal of the subsidies, the fact that these provisions sunset before the end of President Trump’s term is meaningful because it makes them harder to revive.
This result was far from certain at the beginning of the reconciliation debate. Despite there being a strong argument for immediately removing the tax credits, “scalpel” Republicans advocated for a long phase down because they wanted to maintain the stream of funding that was benefiting projects in their districts. Another reason is that history shows the idea of phaseouts is simply a fallacy. Politically, it means that these “scalpel” Republicans could have it both ways – voting to phase out the subsidies but knowing they can easily be revived with a change in the administration or the makeup of Congress. However, when push came to shove, all of these Republicans (with the exception of New York Representative Andrew Garbarino, who did not vote) supported the measure.
Staying in line with President Trump’s promised agenda is the optimal way to ensure that Republicans achieve the goals that they campaigned on. This couldn’t be more true for energy policy; the Trump administration has taken significant steps towards pursuing energy abundance through deregulatory actions and executive orders, but lasting reform requires congressional action to solidify these gains. While rocky at first, it’s a positive sign that House Republicans have recognized the importance of maintaining a united front. Now the success of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act now depends on the Senate, where its prospects of success remain uncertain. According to Politico, Senate Republicans are vowing to make changes to the bill, which could include preserving more of the tax credits or extending the phaseout period. They shouldn’t.
Any further preservation of the IRA’s tax credits should be rejected by Republicans as a wasteful and counterproductive use of taxpayer dollars. Fortunately, any senator that proposes keeping more of the tax credits will be counteracted by fiscal hawks who want to see even more cuts in the bill, making this change unlikely.