Category: Alaska News

This article was first published by Post Alley.

Early this month, a mobile floating gas station of sorts pulled up alongside the towering cruise ship Star Princess at Seattle’s Pier 91 terminal. For the next eight hours, the refueling crew made news by pumping a large volume of super-cooled natural gas into the bowels of the cruise liner.

The newest cruise ship operated by Princess Cruises is the first oceangoing vessel to be refueled in Seattle with liquefied natural gas (LNG). It could be the start of a new way of fueling the Alaska cruise ships that operate out of Seattle and Vancouver all summer.

“I’m just delighted to see there’s no smoke coming out of the cruise ship. We’re plugged in. We’re burning the cleanest gas you can right now,” Port of Seattle Commissioner Fred Felleman said while observing from an adjacent pier. “Right now, this is about as good as it gets in the industry.”

The steadily-growing fleet of mammoth cruise ships that ply the Inside Passage has a sizable carbon footprint – ship fuel being the biggest single component. Cruise line executives acknowledge that they need to do their part to soften the environmental impact. The major cruise lines in the Alaska market, through their trade association, have committed to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions from ship operations by 2050. The challenge until now has been finding an alternative fuel that is cost-competitive and available at scale locally.

Felleman said the Port of Seattle is striving to be the “greenest” cruise homeport. The gleaming floating palace over his shoulder demonstrated a fuel technology that the maritime industry appears to be coalescing around to improve air quality in port communities such as Seattle, Tacoma and Vancouver. But the lengthy transition is accompanied by some sniping and griping.

The super-chilled natural gas arrives on a specialized small-scale tanker ship from British Columbia in a multiday journey that underscores the novelty of the alternative marine fuel. Vancouver-based Seaspan Energy acquired three refueling tankers (commonly called bunkering vessels) from a Chinese shipyard to offer ship-to-ship LNG refueling along the West Coast.

“We’ve been held to a very high standard, not only in the construction of these vessels, not only in the crewing and the credentials of the people operating on these vessels, but in the actual play-by-play operations,” said Seaspan Energy President Harly Penner during an online roundtable hosted by the Port of Seattle. “We’re going to make sure it’s done safely.”

Penner appeared to anticipate LNG’s detractors who portray the fuel as acutely risky if spilled, due to its very low temperature. Critics also worry about the wide, devastating impact if an LNG cargo ignited, which Penner said has never happened during ship-to-ship refueling elsewhere in the world.

The U.S. Coast Guard and Seattle Fire Department reviewed and were satisfied with Seaspan’s LNG bunkering plans. A Star Princess passenger posted the safety instructions applicable to passengers on board. The cruise line handout told people assigned to staterooms overlooking the Seaspan tanker to stay off their balconies during the refueling operation and that smoking in the Star Bar would be forbidden while fueling was underway. A Port of Seattle police boat also kept watch a couple hundred yards off the stern of the cruise ship, which has a 4,300-passenger capacity.

Overall, Port of Seattle officials appear to be giving a tempered welcome to LNG as they celebrate what is anticipated to be the busiest Alaska cruise season in port history. Maritime Division Managing Director Stephanie Jones Stebbins said the port is interested because of the “tremendous” reduction in air pollutants, such as diesel particulates and harmful sulfur and nitrogen oxides. But port staff pointedly avoided claiming a global warming mitigation benefit and also told elected commissioners that there are no plans to invest in local infrastructure to supply LNG from shore.

“We know LNG is ultimately a fossil fuel. We view it as a transition fuel,” Jones Stebbins said. “We are looking beyond that to renewable fuels – options like green methanol, renewable natural gas, ammonia, drop-in synthetic fuels, electrification.”

Shipping line TOTE Maritime converted two large cargo ships on the Tacoma-Anchorage circuit to LNG propulsion in 2022. The ships refuel from an adjacent Puget Sound Energy liquefaction and LNG storage facility that remains controversial in Tacoma and has so far failed to attract other marine users.

On the wrong course?

Climate protection campaigners and some political conservatives take issue with the maritime industry’s fuel transition, but for very different reasons.

The environmental group Seattle Cruise Control urged the Port of Seattle to reject LNG-powered ships. The group labels LNG as a “false promise” because activists calculate the carbon footprint of natural gas from “well to wake” to be as bad or worse for the climate than traditional marine fuels. (The math varies in the industry, and some like Penner claim a positive greenhouse gas benefit.)

“The use of LNG will continue harming the climate, lock in obsolete technology, and delay the necessary transition to zero-emissions fuels,” Seattle Cruise Control co-founder Elizabeth Burton said in an email.

Conservative voices, meanwhile, including at the highest levels of the Trump administration, are pushing back on maritime decarbonization because of the potential pass-through costs to consumers.

“Popular fuel alternatives, such as liquefied natural gas and hydrogen, require double to more than triple the tank size of oil. In an industry that monetizes every square foot of space, it’s a costly gamble for regulation that may not come to pass,” wrote opinion columnist Kate Farmer in the Wall Street Journal last month.

Princess Cruises spokesperson Negin Kamali described LNG as “the best readily available fuel that significantly reduces direct greenhouse gas and other emissions and particulate matter now.” Notably, the cruise line barely mentions the dual-fuel capability of its newest vessel in marketing and advertising. The Love Boat’s other amenities get all the love – such as the restaurants, stage shows and luxury staterooms.

This summer, Star Princess is scheduled to refuel with LNG in Seattle every other weekend. Kamali said that should be sufficient to operate the big ship on LNG throughout the season. When LNG is unavailable, Star Princess’ engines burn traditional marine gas oil.

Star Princess was mistakenly credited by a port and a chamber of commerce in southeast Alaska as the first LNG-powered cruise ship to visit the Last Frontier. That title actually belongs to Silver Nova, which was refueled by Seaspan with LNG in Vancouver before an Alaska sailing last year in May. The dual-fuel luxury liner is being relocated to the Mediterranean for this summer by its operator, Silversea Cruises.

The challenge of decarbonizing

A demonstration last summer in Seattle involving another cruise line, Holland America, showed the multiple challenges and cost barriers involved with decarbonizing large ship operations. For this project, Holland America and the port teamed up to refuel the cruise liner Eurodam with renewable diesel made from vegetable oil.

A port memo described the three refuelings as a bit cumbersome, but ultimately successful from an operational point of view. However, the biofuel netted out to triple the cost of conventional low-sulfur marine fuel. So, the bottom line was that the experiment would not be repeated until biofuel costs come down and availability improves.

Bud Darr, CEO of the trade group Cruise Lines International Association, said it takes “an awful lot of courage” for ship owners to spend as much as $2 billion on new dual-fuel cruise ships designed to burn various kinds of climate-friendly fuel that cannot be procured today.

Darr said there is not much uptake on methanol because the industry is still waiting for bio- or synthetic forms of the fuel to become available at scale. Darr said “the safety case” for carbon-free ammonia is not strong enough to work as cruise ship fuel because of the high toxicity of the gas were it to leak.

That basically leaves LNG as the preferred alternative marine fuel, Darr said during the Port of Seattle’s industry roundtable in April. He said no ship owners had told him that the fossil fuel LNG was their final answer.

“Really, we’re looking to progress from the fossil form of LNG,” Darr said, “on to a renewable version of that.”

Commissioner Felleman is also zeroing in on renewable natural gas as the way to have a thriving cruise industry and protect the climate. Renewable natural gas – aka RNG or bio-LNG – is most commonly derived around here from the breakdown of landfill waste, municipal sewage or feedlot cow manure. Felleman said he is encouraged that the steep price premium for RNG is slowly coming down. Other branches of government are trying to spur greater supply with carbon credits.

“The fastest way to make progress with the existing and growing fleet of vessels is to incentivize the use of alternative fuels,” Fellman said.

Post Alley launched in June 2019 as part of a new, Seattle-based writers’ collective aimed at helping fill gaps in local journalism and exploring new ways of delivering quality reporting and commentary. Learn more about the publication here.

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The Alaska Legislature approved legislation to add a superior court judge to the state’s third judicial district. The new judge is to be based at the Palmer courthouse where the new position is intended to alleviate rising civil and criminal case workloads.

The Alaska Court System requested the legislation, House Bill 262, which would bring the total number of superior court judges from 45 to 46. Lawmakers approved the change by a combined vote of 57 to 0, with three House members absent. The bill now heads to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for consideration.  

Officials with the court system said the state needs to add a judge because the four current superior court judges in Palmer are grappling with unsustainable workloads. That judicial district has the highest numbers of civil and criminal caseloads in the state – nearly 50% higher than the statewide average, with an average of 683 cases per year. That’s an average of 13 cases per week per judge. 

Officials noted that adding a fifth judge to the Palmer courthouse would only bring average caseloads down to an estimated 546 cases per judge annually. “This would still exceed the statewide average number of cases per judge, and Palmer judges would still have the highest caseload per judge of any court in the state, but it would be a welcome and needed improvement,” said Nancy Meade, General Counsel to the Alaska Court System, in a statement requesting the bill.

The population of the Matanuska-Susitna Borough has grown 40% over the past twenty years, a major contributing factor to the rising need in legal services and case numbers at the Palmer courthouse, Meade said. In the same time period, the number of cases filed has risen by 55%.

Rep. Andrew Gray, D-Anchorage, carried the bill in the House, saying the high number of cases at the Palmer courthouse has spillover effects in Anchorage. 

“Cases in Palmer take too long to be heard. In fact, some Mat-Su residents choose to file their cases in Anchorage so that they have a chance of being heard sooner. This means that Anchorage has more cases than they would otherwise have,” he said, speaking on the House floor ahead of the vote on April 22. “We need to fix this problem, so that we can better provide basic justice to all Alaskans,” he said. 

The new judge position is estimated to cost $268,000 annually, according to a state fiscal note. 

If the bill is signed by the governor, the new judge would be selected by a nomination process, including interviews and vetting by the Alaska Judicial Council. The council puts forth two nominees and the governor has 45 days to make a selection for superior court judge. New judges serve for an initial term of three years, after which they appear before voters in a retention election where voters can weigh in on whether the judge should remain on the bench by a yes-no vote. If approved by voters, judges’ subsequent terms are six years until mandatory retirement at age 70.

Correction: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated the vote count. The bill passed 57 to 0, with three House members absent.

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Four years after Gov. Dunleavy vetoed a similar measure, lawmakers passed a bill imposing state’s first tax on electronic cigarettes and related products.

The legislature’s approval of Senate Bill 24 was a victory for Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak. It was the third such bill sponsored by Stevens, who is retiring this year.

“This bill is about protecting our children from becoming addicted to nicotine,” Stevens said in testimony to the House Finance Committee on May 7.

The bill is intended to counter the multibillion-dollar tobacco industry’s efforts “to addict young people to these substances” in the face of declining use of traditional cigarettes, he said.

E-cigarette products use battery-operated devices to produce vapors that are inhaled, a contrast with traditional tobacco that is burned. They were not widely marketed in 2006, the last time Alaska’s state tobacco tax was adjusted. While many Alaska municipalities have updated their tax systems to include e-cigarette products, the state had not.

If it becomes law, the bill would impose a 25% tax on retail products, as well as prohibit purchases by anyone under 21, the same legal age for traditional tobacco purchases.

Supporters of the bill said the tax and the age restriction would discourage youth use of the product, just as higher taxes and other restrictions contributed to a reduction in youth smoking.

“We know that tobacco and nicotine are highly addictive drugs. The younger you start, the more severe your addiction is likely to be, and if we can delay your introduction to the product, the less likely you are to become addicted. Young people are also price-sensitive,” Rep. Sara Hannan, D-Juneau, who carried Stevens’ bill in the House, said in floor debate on May 19, the second-to-last day of the session.

Opponents objected to the idea of a new tax, and they also argued that vaping should be treated as more benign than smoking.

“My concern is that this isn’t a tobacco bill. This is a tax bill. This is tax, tax, tax,” said Rep. Jamie Allard, R-Eagle River. She added that she believes 18- and 19-year-olds should have the right to smoke or vape. 

“My point about this whole thing is freedom. They’re not doing anything wrong, and now you’re imposing a law to take people’s freedom away that doesn’t impair them. So, what’s next? We need to stop. These are adults,” she said.

The bill passed the House 24-16, and the Senate concurred the next day by a vote of 15-5.

Evolution of the bill

During public testimony on the bill, some opponents said that vaping is a safer alternative to smoking, an argument that the industry has made.

Health experts take issue with the claim. While e-cigarettes expose users to fewer toxic chemicals than cigarettes do, they also pose health risks. Along with leading to nicotine additions, they are associated with a dangerous lung condition called EVALI, which stands for e-cigarette or vaping use-associated lung injury.

Stevens’ first bill on the subject passed in 2022 by wide margins, but Dunleavy vetoed it, citing his desire to avoid new taxes. Another version died in 2024 after members of the House, then with a Republican majority, stripped the e-cigarette tax provisions from it and added a reduction in marijuana taxes.

A key difference between the 2022 bill and the new bill is the way the tax is applied. The previously passed bill would have imposed a 45% tax at the wholesale level. The newly passed bill applies a 25% tax on the retail level.

The change reflects the varying types of e-cigarette products. While some are sold as complete units, others are not supplied to retailers as finished products. Instead, they are assembled by retailers from liquids and other components, and it would be very difficult to track down all those suppliers to impose a wholesale-level tax, bill supporters said.

Senate Bill 24 underwent other changes on its way to final passage.

The most controversial was an amendment that allows indoor smoking at designated cigar bars. It was added by Rep. Kevin McCabe, R-Big Lake, during House floor debate on May 19, the second-to-last day of the session.

He said it would help local economies by allowing for specialty cigar bars that can be operated separately from any other food or beverage establishments. He pointed to successful cigar bars operating elsewhere in the nation.

“Frankly, Mr. Speaker, some adults just want a nice quiet place to go enjoy a nice premium cigar,” McCabe said in floor debate.

While anti-tobacco organizations advocated for Senate Bill 24 and previous versions of it, they said the cigar amendment undermines protections for smokefree environments.

“The scientific evidence is clear: there is no safe level of exposure to secondhand smoke, and cigar smoke is no exception. Cigars produce large volumes of toxic smoke that damage the heart and increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, cancer and lung disease—for workers and patrons alike. The only safeguard against secondhand smoke is not to allow it,” said a statement issued by the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network and the American Lung Association.

A different amendment, approved during the committee process, added synthetic nicotine products to the tax program. Those products are generally sold in pouches and deliver nicotine that is derived through a lab process rather than from tobacco.

Another change dropped the maximum fine for a minor possessing tobacco or nicotine products from $300, as proposed in the original form of the bill, to $100.

Federal policy

The federal government, like Alaska, currently imposes no excise tax on e-cigarette products, even though most states do. Democrats in Congress have tried to impose a federal e-cigarette tax since 2019 through a bill called the Tobacco Tax Equity Act, but the bill has yet to pass.

Among those who opposed it is Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska. In a 2022 message, Sullivan said he opposed increased tobacco taxes, “even if done to curb tobacco use,” arguing that they are unfair to low-income consumers. And he said e-cigarette use should not be discouraged through taxation. “If taxes are raised on these products, I worry that it could exacerbate smoking issues by disincentivizing the use of these safer products,” he said in his message.

Legislative opponents of Senate Bill 24 cited Sullivan’s position on federal legislation in their arguments against a state tax.

The Alaska legislation comes as the Trump administration is loosening restrictions on e-cigarette products.

President Donald Trump has positioned himself as an ally of the industry. During the 2024 campaign, he pledged to “save vaping.”

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on May 5 authorized the use of four types of flavored vapes, including mango and blueberry, over public health advocates’ objections. Days before the FDA announced its decision, a subsidiary of tobacco company Reynolds American donated $5 million to MAGA Inc., a pro-Trump political action committee.

The Vapor Technology Association, an industry group, welcomed the FDA decision allowing fruit-flavored products back on the shelves and lauded Trump for it. But the group said it was only a “first step.”

The e-cigarette industry has lost some customers in recent years. Youth use of the products is down from a peak reached in 2019, both nationally and in Alaska, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Alaska Department of Health.

Researchers attributed the decline in part to past bans on flavored products. And the CDC cited education campaigns to discourage youth vaping. The Alaska Division of Public Health is among the agencies involved in such campaigns; it has a youth-focused program called “Not Buying It.”

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One of the most widely used campgrounds in the Chilkat Valley is closed.

The Alaska Division of Parks, part of the Department of Natural Resources, has decided not to open the Chilkoot Lake State Recreation Area campground this summer  

“[It’s] kind of an alarming development,” said borough mayor Tom Morphet during Tuesday evening’s assembly meeting. He said he wasn’t sure what was driving the closure, but that the campgrounds are an important part of the local tourism economy. “We may have to raise our voices a little bit, stomp our feet.” 

Regional superintendent Brad Garasky did not return repeated phone calls and emails seeking more information about the closure. He instead forwarded questions to DNR spokesperson Lorraine Henry who wrote in an email that the campground is closed “due to a lack of staffing” and that the department didn’t have an estimated opening date.  

The state has been operating under a hiring freeze ordered by Gov. Mike Dunleavy in May of 2025. 

Henry did not clarify what kind of staffing would be needed to reopen the area. But during the Tuesday assembly meeting, Haines Borough manager Alekka Fullerton said she has a meeting scheduled with DNR commissioner John Crowther about the hiring freeze  and what would need to happen to allow state parks to hire a park technician. 

“There are several communities that have received a waiver of the hiring freeze,” Fullerton said. 

Henry wrote in the email that no one was available for an interview on the Chilkoot campground.  But noted that the rest of the state parks’ operated area is open for use, including the boat launch and the area available to commercial operators to take people on tours.  

It’s the second time in recent years that state parks, which oversees Chilkat State Park, Chilkoot Lake Recreation Site, the Alaska Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve, and the campground at Mosquito Lake, has closed a local campground. 

The state also oversees the downtown Portage Cove State Recreation Site, which banned camping at the site in 2022. Morphet organized a ‘camp-in’ and gathered signatures from people pushing state parks to reopen the area. Ultimately the borough signed an agreement with state parks to take over active management of the area which is now again used for camping.  

The post Chilkoot campground closed indefinitely  appeared first on Chilkat Valley News.

Civics education would be included among graduation requirements for all Alaska high schoolers, under a bill passed by the Alaska Legislature in the final hours of the legislative session last week. 

The new requirement aims to bolster Alaska students’ knowledge and understanding of the U.S. government and civic responsibilities. It comes amid declining public trust in government, the bill’s sponsor, Senate President Gary Stevens, R-Kodiak, told the Alaska Beacon last month.

Students would have three options to choose from to complete the requirement: complete and pass a semester of civics curriculum, pass a civics exam or complete a civics project-based assessment.

Lawmakers passed Senate Bill 23 by a combined vote of 57 to 3. The bill now goes before Gov. Mike Dunleavy to sign, veto or allow it to pass into law without his signature. 

Under the proposal, school districts would be able to develop civics curriculums based on open-access, no cost resources provided by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development across 14 areas of government and public affairs:

• the founding history of the United States, including foundational documents and the principles of government of the United States; federalism, including the role and operations of local, state and national governments;                                                                                             
• the institutions of the United States government, including the responsibilities of the executive, legislative and judicial branches;                                            
• the rights and responsibilities of United States citizenship;                                      
• civil liberties and civil rights;                                                                  
• the Constitution of the State of Alaska and the Constitution of the United States;                                                                                                    
• political parties and interest groups;                                                             
• campaigns and elections;                                                                           
• the United States Congress;                                                                        
• domestic policy;                                                                                  
• foreign policy;                                                                                  
• comparative systems of governments used globally and by Alaska Native people;                                                                                                          
• international relations; and                                                                      
• major issues facing local, state and the United States governments.

The initiative comes at a time when the United States is seeing a growing public distrust in government and deepening political polarization. A survey last year by the non-partisan Pew Research Center found public distrust is at one of its lowest points in the nation’s history, with just 17% of respondents saying they trust the federal government to “do what is right.” 

Stevens declined to comment on the bill passing the Legislature when asked at the Capitol on Wednesday. He said he would wait to comment after the governor’s decision on the bill. Lawmakers have passed 114 bills in this two-year legislative term. But Dunleavy has vetoed 12 bills so far and will consider dozens more in the next few weeks. 

Lawmakers are in a high-stakes 30-day special session called by Dunleavy to discuss potential state property tax relief for  the proposed Alaska LNG gas line project. The special session is expected to go to June 21.

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Let’s take a moment to recognize something that quietly makes a major difference in the lives of Alaska’s children and families — Medicaid. For thousands of Alaska families, Medicaid isn’t just a program. It is a cornerstone that ensures access to the care, support and resources needed to thrive. It means that when a baby is born, care is available. It means that when a child gets sick, they can see a doctor. It means families, no matter where they live in Alaska, aren’t one medical emergency away from crisis.

In Alaska, Medicaid is a foundational part of how we care for children and families. Roughly one in three children in Alaska rely on Denali KidCare for their health care coverage, and about 40 percent of births in our state are covered by Medicaid. Children make up the largest group of Medicaid enrollees in Alaska — representing 41 percent of all covered individuals — and Medicaid and its children’s health insurance program, Denali KidCare, covers preventive checkups, immunizations, behavioral health care, developmental screenings and treatment when kids are sick or injured. That percentage is even higher in rural communities. Without Medicaid, access to prenatal care, pediatric visits and basic health services becomes not just difficult, but impossible.

That’s why the recent trend in enrollment is so alarming. Between January and November 2025, overall Medicaid enrollment in Alaska dropped by nearly 30,000 individuals. Children’s coverage fell by 10 percent. Most of these children didn’t lose coverage because they became ineligible. They lost it because of paperwork. Renewal packets didn’t reach families and verification requests went unanswered — under current rules, that’s enough to end a child’s coverage. 

When Medicaid works well, it ensures that babies are born healthy, children receive early care and families can access the support they need without falling into crisis. It also helps sustain the clinics and hospitals that communities rely on. These are the building blocks of strong, resilient communities and the foundation on which thriving families are built.

It’s also important to recognize the challenges families and providers are facing. Across Alaska, many are navigating a system that is becoming harder to access. Increased paperwork, additional administrative steps and shifting eligibility requirements may seem like small changes, but for families already balancing work, childcare and transportation challenges, they can be the difference between getting care and going without it.

When access becomes more complicated, children are often the first to feel the impact. We see it when families delay care. We see it when providers reduce services. We see it when parents are forced to make impossible trade-offs. When coverage lapses, children are more likely to miss preventive care and immunizations, go without mental health support and have chronic conditions that go unmanaged. Those gaps don’t just affect health — they surface later as more school absences, behavioral challenges and higher costs across health, education and social services.

At Alaska Children’s Trust, our focus has always been simple: Prevent harm before it happens and ensure every child has the opportunity to thrive. That means investing in the conditions that keep families stable in the first place. Health care access is one of those conditions. It is not just a line item in a budget. It is part of the broader ecosystem that supports safe homes, strong families, and healthy childhoods. 

Alaska can and must do better. That means partnering with schools, clinics, food banks and child care providers to help families re-enroll. It means raising income eligibility limits for kids, expanding Medicaid services available through schools and allowing children to be enrolled immediately while eligibility is verified. It means giving caregivers flexibility so that administrative requirements don’t become another barrier standing between a child and their health care. It means raising awareness of a program that supports the health of 41% of Alaska’s children.

We encourage Alaskans to take a moment to learn how Medicaid supports families in our own communities, to listen to the experiences of parents and providers and to stay engaged in conversations about how we can keep Alaska’s children healthy and supported.

Take the opportunity to stay grounded in what matters most: keeping kids healthy, supporting families and ensuring that where you live in Alaska doesn’t determine whether you can access care. When Alaska’s children are healthy, our communities are stronger for it.

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As major oil companies eye new drilling on Alaska’s North Slope, the Trump administration is now working to accelerate their projects by streamlining environmental reviews on federal land.

It’s a move that could boost production amid what leaders describe as a “renaissance” of North Slope oil. But opponents call it an alarming escalation of the administration’s push to open new areas of Alaska to oil and gas development.

The new proposal was announced May 15 by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on a visit to Alaska.

It would change how regulators review and approve new oil projects in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska, a federally managed area that’s roughly the size of the state of Indiana and encompasses tundra, wetlands and expansive caribou and bird habitat.

Historically, federal land managers have required companies to go through lengthy environmental reviews each time they propose a new project. The Trump administration now aims to create a blanket environmental approval to expedite projects.

The proposal comes at a time when the Trump administration is under pressure from spiking fuel prices and looking for ways to boost U.S. energy production.

But it’s drawing sharp criticism from environmental advocates who fear that it would fast-track projects without adequate assessments of their impacts, imperiling Arctic ecosystems home to caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife.

“It’s pretty extreme,” said Erik Grafe, a longtime Anchorage-based lawyer with Earthjustice, a national environmental law firm that regularly sues to block Arctic oil development.

Another attorney who’s fought new development on the North Slope, Suzanne Bostrom with the firm Trustees for Alaska, said in a prepared statement that the proposal appears to set up a new system where projects could be “rubber stamped.”

“The Arctic isn’t meant for cookie cutter exploitation,” she added. “These are treasured public lands that people depend on and that should be given the highest level of care and protection — the complete opposite of what’s proposed.”

The proposed change comes as the North Slope’s oil industry is picking up steam.

The state’s biggest new oil field in years — located on state and Alaska Native corporation land to the east of the federal petroleum reserve — just started commercial production. Another major project, ConocoPhillips’ Willow development, is set to come online in a few years.

And the industry is poised to expand west: Several of the world’s largest oil corporations, including ConocoPhillips, Shell and ExxonMobil, bid on new territory in the federal reserve in a huge lease sale earlier this year.

Oil fields currently occupy only the reserve’s northeastern corner. But experts say billions of barrels of oil remain in the ground, potentially in areas far from existing infrastructure.

The Trump administration’s permitting proposal came in response to a petition by the Alaska Oil and Gas Association, a trade group known as AOGA. The group, whose members include the major companies operating in Alaska, submitted the request a few days before Burgum’s announcement.

“It’s about building a more stable, durable and predictable permitting framework,” said Steve Wackowski, AOGA’s president.

A decades-old law, the National Environmental Policy Act, requires federal regulators to assess the environmental impacts of large development proposals before taking action on them.

Currently, any oil project proposed on Alaska’s federal lands must undergo its own distinct environmental review.

Industry leaders have long argued that the process is too slow and repetitive — since oil projects often have similar designs and potential impacts. They say streamlining reviews could accelerate oil extraction and job creation without sacrificing environmental protections.

Under the new regulation, federal land managers would have two months to approve any proposed development in the petroleum reserve that meets specific standards.

AOGA’s petition lists more than 50 possible conditions, including consultation with local and regional Indigenous communities and accounting for wildlife habitat when designing infrastructure.

Opponents argue that a blanket analysis wouldn’t be able to account for the particulars of any one project and minimize impacts accordingly.

Wackowski disputed the idea that the proposal would amount to “rubber stamping.”

The impacts of development in the reserve have already been studied in an array of environmental assessments over the past 30 years, he said.

AOGA’s petition, he added, is the first step in a public process that “would evaluate what types of activities could appropriately fit within any streamlined framework and under what conditions.”

The regulatory change would apply only to projects in the petroleum reserve and to one federal agency, the Bureau of Land Management. Projects would still be subject to additional permitting requirements from other agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which reviews permit applications under the federal Clean Water Act.

The proposal is still in a preliminary review period and could change as the Trump administration studies it. Public comments are due by July 6.