Anchorage, Alaska – Trump administration officials: just leaving the tour of one of the countries bigger oil fields In Alaska Arctic, he headed an energy conference led by the State Republican governor on Tuesday that environmentalists criticized as promoting new oil and gas drills and moving away from the climatic crisis.
Several dozen protesters were outside the Annual Sustainable Energy Conference of Alaska de Alaska by Governor Mike Dunleavy in Anchorage, where the Secretary of the Interior of the United States, Doug Burgum, Energy Secretary Chris Wright and the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, Lee Zeldin, were presented. Federal officials They continued a multi -day trip aimed at highlighting Push of President Donald Trump to expand oil and gas drilling, mining and registration in the state.
The trip has included meetings with groups and officials in favor of Some Native Alaska leaders On the northern slope rich in oil, and a visit to the Prudhoe Bay oil field near the Arctic Ocean that presented selfies near the 800-mile Trans-Allash Oil Pipe (1,287 kilometers).
Ask for additional oil and gas drilling, including Trump’s renewed approach to obtaining a huge Liquefied Natural Gas Project Built: they are “false solutions” to energy needs and climatic concerns, said the protester Sarah Furman outside the Anchorage conventions hall, while people wore signs with slogans like “Alaska is not on sale” and “protects our public lands.”
“We are really false that they are organizing this conference and not talking about real solutions,” he said.
The issues at the conference, which extends until Thursday, also include mining, carbon management, nuclear energy, renewable energy and hydrogen. Oil has been Alaska’s vital soul for decades, and Dunleavy has continued hug fossil fuels Even when he has promoted other energy opportunities in the state.
Another protester, Rochelle Adams, which is Gwich’in, expressed concerns about the continuous impulse to allow oil and gas drilling in the coastal plain of the National Arctic Wildlife Refuge. Gwich’in’s leaders have said they consider the sacred coastal plain, as Caribúes trust the couple there. Kaktovik’s Iñupiaq community leaders, which is within the shelter, support drilling as economically vital and have joined Alaska’s political leaders to welcome Trump’s interest in reliving a lease program there.
“When these people come from abroad to take, take and take, we will stay with the later effects,” said Adams, and added later: “It is our health that will be affected. It is our well -being, our ways of life.”
Zeldin, during a friendly period of questions and answers led by Dunleavy, said the wild life he saw while on the northern hillside did not seem “being victims of his surroundings” and seemed “happy.”
Burgum, which addresses an additional drilling movement in the National Petroleum-Alaska Reserve, said wildlife and development can coexist. His agency during Alaska’s trip announced plans to repeal the restrictions of the Biden era On the future lease and industrial development in parts of the oil reserve that are designated as special for their wild life, subsistence or other values.
Wright bristled at the idea of politics “in the name of climate change” that said it would have no impact on climate change. Stop oil production in Alaska does not change oil demand, he said.
“You know, we listen to terms such as clean energy and renewable energy. These are inaccurate marketing terms,” he said. “There is no source of energy that does not take significant materials, land and impact on the environment to produce. Zero.”
They joined part of the trip of US officials, were representatives of Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, Philippines, Taiwan and United Arab Emirates. Asian countries are being courted to log in to the Alaska Gas project, which has fallen for years to win traction in the middle of costs and other concerns. The project, as proposed, would include a pipe of almost 810 miles (1,300 kilometers) that would channel gas from the northern slope to the port, with an eye largely in liquefied natural gas exports.
Wright told reporters that an objective by inviting them to the Prudhoe Bay stop was for them to see the infrastructure and the environment of the pipeline and meet with residents and business leaders.
Glenfarne Alaska LNG LLC, which has taken an advantage in the progress of the project, announced expressions of interest of several “potential partners.” The costs surrounding the project, which have been linked around $ 44 billion for the pipe and another infrastructure, are in the process of refineing before making a decision on whether to advance.
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Bohrer reported from Juanau, Alaska.