AK Natives Criticize Biden Energy Bans Amid Trump Tour of Tundra, Claim Homeland Would've Been Stolen

Alaska's North Slope communities, often overlooked in national energy debates, found their voices heard this week during a high-profile visit from top federal and state officials. In the remote town of Utqiagvik, leaders including Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, and Governor Mike Dunleavy met directly with local residents and Native leaders, offering the region’s people a rare opportunity for dialogue with Washington policymakers.

For many Alaska Natives and locals, the encounter provided a chance to express longstanding frustrations about federal oversight of energy development in their homelands. Charles Lamp, a resident of Kaktovik—the only community within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR)—shared that, prior to recent policy shifts, he and his neighbors felt their economic hopes were continuously stifled by distant decision-makers. Lamp described how outside environmental groups and aligned officials often pushed to restrict local oil and gas projects, regardless of community support.

“There's one thing that I want to bring up – we were under attack in Kaktovik by environmental groups,” Lamp told the gathering, recalling years of feeling powerless as others sought to regulate their ancestral lands. He credited former President Donald Trump for standing up to those pressures, praising executive actions instructing the Fish and Wildlife Service to deny activist requests aimed at halting development. “That was such an amazing thing for us to be able to see. And we were so proud of our president then because he made sure that our ancestral homelands weren't going to be stolen – and [instead] protected,” Lamp said, underscoring the local perspective that responsible energy projects offer jobs and resources vital to their survival.

Lamp also warned that things would have been “very different” had the previous administration’s regulatory approach continued, saying, “there’s no doubt in my mind that our homeland would have been stolen and there’s nothing we could have done about it.” He appealed for former President Trump to visit Kaktovik and see ANWR’s “Section 1002”—designated for potential oil and gas development—firsthand, a suggestion Secretary Burgum welcomed, indicating Trump’s willingness to listen and respond to industry and community needs.

Burgum noted that the Trump administration surprised major oil companies by inviting candid dialogue and solutions. At a recent meeting, when ConocoPhillips representatives mentioned the need for better infrastructure, Trump instantly questioned why a necessary road couldn’t be built, revealing a hands-on approach rarely seen by industry leaders. “They were kind of like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know we could ask that,’” Burgum recalled.

Energy Secretary Chris Wright echoed these sentiments, describing a tour of the Prudhoe Bay Discovery Well, site of Alaska’s mid-20th-century oil boom, and lamenting decades of declining production. Wright blamed not resource scarcity, but increasing federal regulation and bureaucracy for hampering output, asserting that vast reserves remain untapped due to costly and complex rules. He highlighted the promise of a “Big, Beautiful, Twin Natural Gas Pipeline”—a project with potential to make Alaska a cornerstone of global energy security, especially among Asian trading partners seeking alternatives to Chinese supplies.

Recent initiatives, including a global sustainable energy conference headlined by Governor Dunleavy in Anchorage, reflect Alaska’s eagerness to attract international stakeholders and boost its energy sector. As these high-level discussions continue, North Slope residents are hopeful that a receptive White House, coupled with robust state leadership, will help chart a path toward prosperity while respecting the unique needs and voices of Alaska’s far north.