Alaska was the largest source of US oil production in the past. However, a host of factors, including increased regulation and the emergence of the fracking they have condemned this state to oil ‘mediocrity’. A situation that the leaders of the vast state want to change by offering themselves as a solution to the energy crisis that the world is experiencing, which has also been seriously exacerbated by the conflict between Russia and Ukraine.
Alaska has offered to replace Russia in the oil and gas market at a key moment for the global economy. This state has some proven oil reserves of more than 2.4 billion barrels. However, its production is barely 480,000 barrels per day, compared to the more than two million barrels it produced at the end of the 1980s. Now, Alaska wants to return to what it was and in the process alleviate the energy tension that supports the world and feeds Russia’s finances.
Harry Brower, Mayor of the District of Alaska North Slope, and Josiah Patkotak, State Congressman, have published a letter on The Wall Street Journal calling on US President Joe Biden to allow Alaska to sell its energy to the world and end this energy crisis. How can you get this? Allowing the region access to its huge oil reserves, capable of supplying not only the US, but also the rest of the countries dependent on Russia.
“Even when Russian tanks lined the border with Ukraine in February, the administration Biden froze US drilling on federal land and issued rules that make it difficult to build gas pipelines. We may be Inupiaq Eskimos 5,000 miles away from the political machine in Washington, but you know something is crazy when we see it. And this is crazy,” they say.
These Alaskan politicians denounce that Russia’s large oil and gas exports to Europe and the United States are financing Vladimir Putin’s aggression in Ukraine. This is partly due to the increasingly strict regulation in the US to extract oil on federal soil and with the use of certain practices.
“Reducing US energy production forces the world to buy oil and gas from countries like Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, that have abysmal human rights records, low environmental standards and high carbon emissions. It does not have to be this way. The United States can responsibly produce enough energy to meet its own needs and those of the world while weakening Russia, but only if Washington allows it,” Brower and Patkotak write.
Prudhoe Bay on the North Slope, one of the largest oil fields in North America, is located in Alaska. Since 1977, Prudhoe Bay has produced millions of barrels of oil, contributing billions of dollars to state and federal coffers, financing the development of Alaska Native communities and contributing to the national security of the United States, the letter states.
Because energy markets are global, the oil produced in the North Slope has helped fuel the world’s economy as well. “Alaskans have done all of this while protecting our lands and waters.”
Alaska’s North Slope is home to billions of barrels of oil in proven reserves. With the help and incentives of the previous Federal Government, Alaska began to increase its production with investments flowing into projects on the North Slope. Everything indicated that the inhabitants of Alaska, the Americans and the world would benefit from this movement, says the letter.
But then came the Biden administration, shaped and influenced by radical environmentalists (according to the letter) whose goal is to shut down American oil production. Strict environmental standards mean that, unlike elsewhere in the country, the season for drilling new wells in Alaska it is short and timely permissions are essential.
Biden’s Policies
“The Biden administration has consistently delayed those permits, eliminating any hope of winter drilling. They have required more studies for projects that have been studied ad nauseam. They have also discouraged financial institutions from investing in the Arctic, both on federal land and private”, denounce these politicians.
Brower and Patkotak argue that Reducing carbon emissions is crucial for the planet. Alaska is on the front lines in the fight against climate change. “That’s why Alaskans push tirelessly to ensure that energy companies that extract oil do so with the most advanced carbon reduction technology.”
Now, not just the weather, Alaska also holds the key to creating a more just world: “As one nation invades another thousands of miles from Alaska’s North Slope, as our country is affected by high energy prices, while the world feels like it’s on the brink of chaos, we’re here to help and we’re here to serve. Will President Biden allow us to do that?”
Biden has in his own home the solution to the oil crisis that threatens the global economy
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