Day: August 4, 2026

The Trump administration is proposing to loosen the regulation of offshore Arctic oil drilling by revoking several safety regulations put in place during the Obama administration.

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced on Monday that it will propose a new rule to change what it called “a burdensome regulatory framework” imposed a decade ago on oil development in federal Arctic waters.

In a statement, Interior officials said the move would encourage oil development in the region.

“President Trump has made clear that America must fully avail itself of Alaska’s extraordinary resource potential for the benefit and security of the Nation and the citizens who call Alaska home,” Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum said in the statement. “This proposed rule reflects a disciplined, mission-focused approach that strengthens regulatory efficiency, reduces unnecessary barriers and ensures that Arctic energy exploration proceeds safely, responsibly and under strong federal oversight.”  

“The Alaskan Outer Continental Shelf contains some of America’s most promising offshore resources,” Matt Giacona, Interior’s acting marine mineral administration director, said in the statement. “These targeted updates would provide clear, practical compliance options for Arctic Outer Continental Shelf exploration while preserving safeguards to protect workers, the environment and Alaska’s precious natural resources.”

The proposal drew immediate criticism from one environmental group.

“There’s no such thing as safe drilling in the Arctic Ocean, and that’s why it should never, never happen,” said Cooper Freeman, Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “Having these very stringent rules and regulations to protect the Arctic and avoid catastrophe is the bare minimum.”

Arctic conditions, that feature shifting sea ice, harsh weather and remoteness, make oil spill response virtually impossible – and they make oil exploration impractical, Freeman said.

“It’s incredibly expensive, risky, dangerous, uncertain,” he said. Alternatively, leaders could be developing renewable energy infrastructure now, but “that’s not what our federal or state leadership are focusing on, and it’s just hurting our environment, hurting the climate and hurting the pocketbooks of Alaskans.”

Details of the newly proposed rule were not available on Monday. The proposal will be published in the Federal Register in future days and subject to a 90-day public comment period after that, the Department of the Interior said in its statement.

There has been only sporadic oil exploration drilling in federal waters of the Arctic in past decades, and there has never been any oil produced from there or any part of the federally managed outer continental shelf off Alaska except for a small part of the Hilcorp-operated Northstar field, which is located mostly on state territory.

There has been no oil production in Canadian Arctic waters, either. Canada has long maintained a two-rig requirement, and oil development in Canadian Arctic waters has been barred under a  moratorium imposed in 2019.

Arctic oil policy changes

Monday’s Department of the Interior announcement is the latest episode in a back-and-forth pattern of Arctic oil policy.

The Obama-era rule standardized some requirements that had been applied to Shell’s multibillion-dollar exploration program in the early 2010s in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas.

That rule included a requirement that each operator have a designated backup drill rig to be available to respond to a well blowout and an integrated operating plan with steps to be taken and equipment to be used in the event of emergencies such as oil spills and extreme weather events.

The Obama-era rule went into effect in 2016, after Shell abandoned its offshore Arctic program.

The first Trump administration tried to loosen those Obama-era requirements. In a proposed rule released in 2020, the administration said it intended to relax the relief-well requirement and eliminate the requirement for an integrated operating plan among other changes.

That first Trump administration rule never went into effect. The Biden administration in 2021 rescinded the proposal, keeping the Obama-era rules in place.

The new Trump proposal, like the proposal in the first Trump term, seeks to relax the relief-well requirement and eliminate the requirement for an integrated operating plan, according to the Department of the Interior statement.

The attempt to loosen Arctic drilling rules comes as the Trump administration is pushing to expand oil development in that remote region.

The administration’s draft five-year outer continental shelf oil and gas leasing plan calls for numerous lease sales in federal Arctic waters, along with several lease sales in the Bering Sea and Bering Strait region.

That is despite President Barack Obama’s actions that withdrew the entire Chukchi Sea and much of the Beaufort Sea from the leasing program.

A previous federal court ruling struck down an earlier attempt, during the first Trump administration, to allow oil drilling in Arctic waters that Obama had withdrawn from leasing. Under the Outer Continental Shelf Leasing Act, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled in 2019, presidents may withdraw territory from the leasing program but they may not add territory.

Despite Gleason’s ruling, and despite a new lawsuit filed last year over the same issue, the Trump Department of the Interior is proposing to sell oil and gas leases not only in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas but in a newly designated, farther-north offshore region it calls the “High Arctic.” U.S. rights to that High Arctic territory have yet to be internationally recognized.

One Department of the Interior agency warned in December that it lacks the resources to properly regulate an expanded Alaska offshore leasing program. In comments on the Trump administration’s draft leasing plan, the Alaska director of the U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said the staff in the state was down to only four and the draft leasing plan “does not address the appropriations or staff required for any amount of additional leasing, exploration, or development activity” that the administration proposed for waters off Alaska.

The Trump administration in November reinstated expired Hilcorp offshore leases at the long-languishing Liberty project. The Biden administration in late 2024 denied Hilcorp’s request for extended time to develop the leases; it was the 12th such request made since oil was discovered there in the 1990s.

Plans for the Liberty development stretch back decades. BP, the original operator, had two general proposals, one for an artificial island to be the drill site and the second for drilling from an existing onshore area using ultra-extended-reach wells. Hilcorp, after it acquired Liberty and the operator position from BP, reverted to the artificial island concept but, as of 2024, switched to the ultra-extended-reach-drilling concept that BP had tried but rejected as unfeasible.

The Center for Biological Diversity and a Native organization, Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, have notified the Department of the Interior and its officials that they intend to sue over the reinstatement of Liberty leases. That lawsuit has not yet been filed, Freeman said.

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Early in-person voting began Monday at 10 locations in the Railbelt, Juneau and Nome for Alaska’s Aug. 18 statewide primary election. As of July 31, just under 10,000 voters had requested absentee ballots for the election, and hundreds of absentee voters had already mailed in their votes, according to figures from the Alaska Division of Elections.

What’s at stake?

This election decides the four U.S. House, U.S. Senate and governor candidates who will be in the November general election. It also decides whether Alaska will limit the amount of money that political donors can give directly to candidates.

Because the top four candidates for an office advance to the November general election — and because most of the 50 state legislative races have four or fewer candidates — the primary doesn’t mean as much for most legislative races individually.

But because the difference between a Republican-led state House and Senate and a predominantly Democratic coalition-led state House and Senate may come down to a few votes, the handful of contested legislative elections may be important.

Watch Eagle River, where incumbent Republican Rep. Jamie Allard is facing four challengers, or the eastern Mat-Su, where Dunleavy-appointed Republican Rep. Garret Nelson has five opponents. In the western Mat-Su, Republican Rep. Kevin McCabe has four challengers.

In the Senate, watch southwest Alaska, where Sen. Lyman Hoffman, D-Bethel, has retired and seven candidates — including current Speaker of the House Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham — are running for the open seat.

Seven people are running for the state House seat that Edgmon is leaving open.

What’s the difference between absentee voting and early voting?

The difference is when your ID is verified. At an early voting location, a poll worker looks up your voter registration at a computer to verify that you’re registered to vote in a specific district, then hands you a ballot from that district.

You’ll want to bring a driver’s license, tribal ID or something else to verify your identity. Even a piece of mail with your current name and address will work. If the poll worker knows you, they can also verify your identity without ID.

When you vote absentee, you get a ballot for a district, then seal it inside an envelope and fill out the cover of that envelope with identity information. 

Starting Aug. 11, review boards will begin checking the information on those envelopes to verify that those absentee ballots came from registered voters. The ballots within those envelopes will be counted once the polls close Aug. 18.

Absentee ballots can be mailed to the Division of Elections, or they can be cast in person at dozens of places across the state. While there’s only 11 early voting places in Alaska, there are many, many more places to cast in-person absentee votes, including at most city clerks offices.

Which method is best?

Mailed absentee ballots will be counted as long as they’re postmarked on or before election day and reach the Division of Elections no later than Aug. 28.

In Alaska, not all mail is postmarked on the day it is mailed, so be sure to mail your ballot a few days early. 

If you’re worried about mail delays, take your absentee ballot to one of the locations listed here before election day, or do early voting in person. 

You can also fax a completed absentee ballot to the Division of Elections. If you don’t have a fax machine, you can use a scan-to-fax app on your cellphone instead.

Early voting ensures your vote gets counted, since your ID is verified up front, your ballot is already scanned and ready to be counted, and there’s a paper copy for any recounts and reviews. 

The drawback is that it’s only offered in 10 places within the state, and if you’re traveling Outside or not close to one of those 10 places, it’s not available.

What does the ballot look like?

Your ballot will have two sides. On the front side are the U.S. House and U.S. Senate races. On the back side are the governor, state House and state Senate races. There’s also an option for Ballot Measure 1. 

Pick one candidate for each race. Ranked-choice voting, when you’ll rank up to four candidates, is in November.

Use a blue or black pen to fill in the oval. Don’t use a permanent marker.

When will results be available?

The first unofficial results will be posted online about 9 p.m. on Aug. 18. Full election day totals may take a few days to arrive as rural precincts report their results. Absentee ballots will be counted day by day, with new totals expected Aug. 25 and then on Aug. 28, when the last unofficial results will be posted.

Aug. 31 is when the division expects to certify the final results. That’s also the date for any top-four candidates to withdraw, something that has happened in prior years for strategic reasons.

Lower-finishing Republicans, in particular, have been willing to drop out of the top four to ensure that only one Republican appears on the November ballot.

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