A planned 807-mile pipeline between Prudhoe Bay and the planned Kenai terminal would boost exports and deliver natural gas to remote Alaskans.
President Donald Trump’s Alaska executive actions package not only seeks to expand fossil fuel development in the state but defines a stalled liquified natural gas (LNG) pipeline and marine terminal project—the only one now approved and permitted on the United States’ west coast—as pivotal in anchoring “an energy corridor of critical national importance.”
In his Jan. 20 ‘Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential’ order, the president calls on federal agencies to “expedite the permitting and leasing of energy and natural resource projects,” prioritize “development of Alaska’s liquified natural gas (LNG) potential,” and expand oil and gas drilling in the 19.6 million-acre Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and, potentially, also in the 23 million-acre National Petroleum Reserve.
The sweeping action rescinds “all regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, and any other similar agency actions … promulgated, issued, or adopted between Jan. 20, 2021, and Jan. 20, 2025,” essentially erasing 70 Biden-era regulatory actions related to Alaska.
The rollbacks and prioritization aim to accelerate an unnamed project that, in nomination hearings for Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright, was repeatedly referred to as the “Alaska LNG project.”
That project is Alaska Gasline Development Corporation’s (AGDC) planned 807-mile pipeline that would funnel about 3.3 billion cubic feet of gas a day (Bcf/d) from Prudhoe Bay above the North Slope to Nikiski on the Kenai Peninsula, about 80 miles south of Anchorage by boat on Cook Inlet, or 170 miles by road on Alaska Highway 1.
AGDC, an independent, state-owned corporation, was established in 2013 by state lawmakers who commissioned it the following year to “develop an Alaska liquefied natural gas project on the state’s behalf.”
The proposed pipeline and terminal project was initially submitted to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2017 and received authorization to proceed in May 2020 under the Trump administration. It was reauthorized under the Biden administration in 2022.
Despite the authorizations, proponents maintain 70 Biden executive orders related to Alaska energy development have locked the LNG project in a regulatory limbo.
By John Haughey
