Brett Huber: A pivotal moment for Alaska’s economic stability

By BRETT HUBER

“Time is our scarcest resource. That’s why we’re going at it with everything we’ve got and trying to bulldoze the bureaucracy where it exists.” – Russell Vought, director the Office of Management and Budget

Indeed, time is an irreplaceable resource for Alaska. But for the first time in years, Alaska is no longer swimming upstream against federal policy. The current alignment of leadership, law, and political will has created something rare in our state’s modern history: a clear runway to do the very thing that Alaska was expected to do at statehood: Develop its resources.

Just this month, President Donald Trump signed several major Alaska-focused measures into law, three of them reversing Biden-era restrictions that had locked down vast swaths of land originally set aside for development.

One bill he signed revoked the Bureau of Land Management’s 2024 rule under President Biden that severely crushed oil and gas activity in the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska. NPR-A was never meant to be a museum. It was created for energy security by President Warren Harding in 1923. Congress designated it for energy development in 1976, but for the Biden years it was treated as if that mandate didn’t exist. That has now changed.

Another bill Trump signed overturned the Biden Administration’s restrictions on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain. ANWR leasing was effectively strangled through the Biden administrative action after Congress had already authorized development. That lock-up is now gone, too.

And a third bill wiped away the Central Yukon Resource Management Plan, a sweeping land-use regime covering more than 13 million acres of BLM land in central and northern Alaska. That plan constrained access to critical minerals, energy corridors, and infrastructure route, including areas tied to the Ambler mining road and future energy projects. Its repeal restores multiple-use management and removes barriers that never should have been erected in the first place.

Taken together, these actions signal a return to something fundamental: Respect for Alaska’s role as a resource state.

This idea that Alaska should develop its resources is embedded in Alaska’s statehood compact. In fact, Alaska was admitted to the Union on the condition that it develop its natural resources for the benefit of its people and the nation. And that wasn’t just a footnote, but was the very deal that convinced skeptics that Alaska could support itself as a state.

For years, federal policy ignored that reality. Land withdrawals, delayed permits, shifting rules, and lawfare made investment risky and progress slow. But policy matters, and although the lawsuits will continue from the NGOs, at least the policy has changed.

And Alaska is ready. There’s so much more to be done. After all, the North Slope remains one of the least explored petroleum provinces on Earth.

Let that sink in for a moment: Exploration density here in 2025 is less than what was already completed in the Permian Basin in 1950. We are sitting on proven rocks, proven systems, and proven elephants: Prudhoe Bay and Kuparuk remain the two largest conventional oil fields in North America.

More fields are coming online: Pikka. Willow. Lagniappe. Is this a speculative dream? Hardly. They are real projects moving forward because of, you guessed it: Policy.

Here is another truth the rest of the country often forgets: Alaska offers something the industry desperately needs – stability. After spending fortunes chasing shale plays in the Lower 48, with steep decline curves and constant reinvestment needed, companies still want some large, conventional fields in their portfolios that produce steadily for decades. Alaska provides that.

So there you have it: We are the least explored. We have the most opportunity. But we simply don’t have the luxury of time. We’ve seen what a difference one election can make on our state.

Alaska is hip against demographic headwinds. Young people leave when there are no jobs, no career paths, and no reason to stay. Energy development isn’t just about barrels and revenues, but about creating durable, high-wage work that supports families, communities, and an economy that works for the next generation. This moment in time is a mandate.

We have to give credit to  Alaska’s congressional delegation and governor, who worked relentlessly to unwind years of regulatory overreach and restore Alaska’s ability to compete. Along with a president who “gets it,” these wins happened because Alaska and America put the right leaders in place, even when the politics were hard and the environmental organizations and their lawyers made things look impossible.

For once, Alaska has the alignment it needs: A serious delegation, a governor who understands the stakes, and a president unafraid to push policy across the finish line.

Our stars are aligned. Alaska should prepare for them and embrace the responsibility that comes with them. And, most importantly, we must make the best use of the scarcest resource of all: Time.

Brett Huber is state director for Americans for Prosperity-Alaska.