The main purpose of this ongoing blog will be to track planetary extreme, or record temperatures related to climate change. Any reports I see of ETs will be listed below the main topic of the day. I’ll refer to extreme or record temperatures as ETs (not extraterrestrials).😉
Main Topic: Drill Baby Drill Part 2- Millions of Acres in Alaska Now Open to Drilling and Mining
Dear Diary. Yesterday we delved into broad plans for Trump to open fossil fuel spigots. As stated, over the next few years I will seek to clarify just how much carbon concentrations from Trump’s actions affect global average planetary temperatures.
Today we will home in on Trump’s plans for Alaska. Oil fuel interests have been salivating at the prospect of drilling in lands that are part of designated parks not only in Alaska but across the lower 48 states as well. Prior democratic administrations have fought tooth and nail to keep Alaskan drilling and mining at bay. Apparently, environmentalists are about to lose their long fight there.
As stated by many in the world of climate, we must keep fossil fuels in the ground so that our climate won’t be wrecked, and now we are doing the opposite of what is necessary in order for civilization to continue.
Here are details from the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/03/20/alaska-drilling-trump-anwr
Interior to open millions of acres in Alaska to drilling and mining
Trump officials said they would open up areas of Alaska that Joe Biden had made off-limits to oil and gas production, and allow for a gas pipeline to be built across the state.
March 20, 2025
A road zigzags across the landscape near exploratory drilling sites at Ambler Metal’s Arctic deposit area in Ambler Mining District, Alaska. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
By Jake Spring
The Interior Department on Thursday announced that it aims to open up millions of acres of near-pristine land in Alaska to oil drilling and allow for a new pipeline to be built across the state.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said the department would allow oil and gas leases on 82 percent of the 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, overturning protections that President Joe Biden finalized last year, and will reinstate a program to permit drilling in the 1.56 million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the country’s largest preserve of its kind.
The department also will work to transfer federal land to the state to help construct a pipeline to transport liquefied natural gas for export to Asia and a road that is critical in operating a planned copper and zinc mine in northern Alaska. Nearly a year ago Biden administration officials blocked the land transfer for Ambler Road, which was slated to traverse Gates of the Arctic National Park and Preserve, on grounds that it would harm the region’s Indigenous communities and wildlife habitat.
Politicians have wrangled for decades over developing Alaska, which boasts massive reserves of fossil fuels and minerals but also the largest areas of untouched wilderness in the United States. In several cases, Republican presidents have pushed for exploration in these vast expanses, only to have areas restricted under Democrats.
“It’s time for the U.S. to embrace Alaska’s abundant and largely untapped resources as a pathway to prosperity for the nation, including Alaskans,” Burgum said in a statement. “For far too long, the federal government has created too many barriers to capitalizing on the state’s energy potential.”
On taking office Jan. 20, President Donald Trump issued an executive order that signaled his goal of reversing Biden and “unleashing Alaska’s extraordinary energy potential.” Interior officials said these policy changes marked the first steps to implement that directive.
Environmentalists, however, criticized the move.
“Any oil drilling or any leasing is going to severely impair what’s really special about the refuge,” said Bobby McEnaney, director of land conservation at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an advocacy group. “The refuge is home to just an extraordinary number of species of wildlife, habitat for polar bears, for musk ox and for caribou. It’s important to a lot of Indigenous people who live up there.”
Alex Johnson, an Arctic and Alaska campaigner for the National Parks Conservation Association, said the proposed Ambler Road would cut through “one of the most spectacular intact landscapes in the entire national parks system,” including 11 major river crossings. “This order is deeply concerning for anyone who cares about national parks and wildlife in the Arctic.”
Trump has promised to “drill baby, drill” in an effort to ramp up oil and gas production in the United States to address what he has declared a “national energy emergency.” While there is considerable industry interest in developing parts of Alaska’s North Slope, including in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, oil and gas companies have largely shied away from bidding on leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
In an email, Kara Moriarty, president of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, praised Burgum’s announcement “for recognizing Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential and taking meaningful steps to development.” She called for a balance between “responsible development and conservation.”
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) welcomed the policy shift, saying in a statement, “This is wonderful news for Alaska.”
On Wednesday, Trump met with oil executives at the White House to talk about permitting and rolling back regulations. Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Burgum, in taking questions, did not indicate whether the president discussed drilling in new areas.
Trump’s bid to accelerate production is part of his campaign promise to lower costs and fight inflation. Wright, who previously suggested oil prices could fall to $50 a barrel from about $70 currently, said prices were not discussed at the meeting with executives.
On Thursday, Trump also signed an executive order aimed at spurring domestic mineral production, by expediting approval for pending mining applications. The measure applies to not just critical minerals but also “uranium, copper, potash, gold, and any other element, compound or material as determined by the Chair of the National Energy Dominance Council (NEDC).”
An oil pipeline stretches across an area outside Prudhoe Bay in North Slope Borough, Alaska, in 2019. (Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post)
By Jake Spring Jake Spring is a climate and environment enterprise reporter. Prior to joining The Washington Post, he worked as a Reuters correspondent in Brazil and China, served as editor of China Economic Review and covered business in South Carolina. Follow on X@jakespring
Related:
Here are more “ETs” recorded from around the planet the last couple of days, their consequences, and some extreme temperature outlooks, as well as any extreme precipitation reports:
Here is More Climate News from Saturday:
(As usual, this will be a fluid post in which more information gets added during the day as it crosses my radar, crediting all who have put it on-line. Items will be archived on this site for posterity. In most instances click on the pictures of each tweet to see each article. The most noteworthy items will be listed first.)