GOP Rep Says Alaska Is Key To Unleashing American Energy Dominance

Republican Alaskan Rep. Nick Begich said his state is a resource giant that can help unlock America’s energy potential in a sit-down interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The former Biden administration imposed a multitude of harsh restrictions on the energy industry in Alaska and chained the state’s oil and gas leasing across almost half of the massive National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), which President Donald Trump has been working to reverse. Now is the time to shield Alaska from future assaults on its energy industry and unlock its resource potential for the whole country given that the U.S. has a president advocating for energy dominance, as well as a Republican-controlled House and Senate, Begich said.

“Alaska had about 70 executive orders and actions that specifically targeted our ability to develop mineral resources and energy resources in our state [under former President Joe Biden.] These are orders and actions that did not apply to other states. And others have said this — that’s more executive actions against the state of Alaska than sanctions against the nation of Iran,” Begich told the DCNF. “Alaska has a bigger role to play in our nation going forward. I believe we’re going to play that role. We’re going to play it an outsized way relative to the past, and we’ve got the perfect opportunity right now with a Republican House, Republican Senate, and a president that wants to make America great again to get those things done for our state, for our nation.”

After years of staying static, American energy demand is on the rise, and the U.S. is not projected to meet its impending electricity needs, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). The anticipation of more domestic manufacturing, closures of aging power plants, as well as the proliferation of new data centers that burn through large amounts of energy have driven up projections, experts explained to the DCNF previously.