Over the past year, a wave of high-profile development proposals — from oil fields and mining roads to timber projects — has reshaped a fast-moving debate, propelling Alaska into the center of the national conversation over how to balance energy production with conservation. These projects have revived long-running tensions over what the state’s public lands are for, and who they ultimately benefit.
The federal government has long viewed Alaska as resource-rich, a posture that’s intensified under the Trump administration. After meeting Trump in 2018, Gov. Mike Dunleavy called Alaska “America’s natural resource warehouse.”
But the last time Alaska figured this prominently in national energy and conservation debates was in the late 1970s, during negotiations over the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, said Philip Wight, an Arctic energy historian at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
What makes today’s landscape different, Wight said, is a unified federal government pushing multiple contentious development proposals at once, with fewer moderate Republicans willing to oppose them and environmental conservation organizations weakened by systemic funding issues and coordinated political attacks.
Wight acknowledged that Alaska has been a resource territory for centuries. But this wealth has too often benefited outside corporations without contributing to the long-term welfare of Alaskans, he said. Meanwhile, Alaskans still pay some of the nation’s highest energy costs, and climate change is already threatening existing and proposed infrastructure.
“While Alaska has much to gain from developing our resources, we also have much to lose.”
This is how things stand in some of the most high-profile hotspots.
“While Alaska has much to gain from developing our resources, we also have much to lose.”
Logging the Tongass
Last summer, the U.S. The Department of Agriculture announced plans to rescind the Roadless Rule, opening up more than 9 million acres of the Tongass National Forest to road-building, logging and development. The rule, which protects tens of millions of acres of national forest, was rolled back in 2020 during Trump’s first term and reinstated by the Biden administration in 2023.
At almost 17 million acres, the Tongass National Forest is the largest national forest in the country, and the largest temperate rainforest in the world. “People depend on it for subsistence, for hunting, for fishing, for a tourism economy, for recreation,” said Nathan Newcomer, who advocates for the Tongass with the Southeast Alaska Conservation Council.
Newcomer said a draft environmental impact statement from the U.S. Department of Agriculture could come out in March 2026, with the goal of finalizing a new rule-making process by the end of next year. Meanwhile, Trump is reopening the international market for trees cut in the Tongass.
Development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
America’s largest and northernmost wildlife refuge comprises 19 million acres between the state’s Prudhoe Bay oil fields and the Canadian border. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates its coastal plain may contain 4.3 billion to 11.8 billion barrels of oil, plus large quantities of natural gas. However, geopolitical, economic, environmental and legal obstacles continue to impact the feasibility of extracting it.
During his first term, President Trump opened up the refuge’s 1.57 million-acre coastal plain — critical habitat for wildlife, including caribou and polar bears — to oil and gas leasing. Since then, there have been two lease sales: In January 2021, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority (AIDEA), a state-owned public resource development corporation, was awarded leases. But, the January 2025 sale drew no bids. The Biden administration attempted to cancel AIDEA’s leases, but a federal court reinstated them in March 2025. In his Jan. 20 executive order “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” Trump called on the secretary of the Interior to “take all necessary steps” to add more coastal plain lease sales.
In October 2025, a new Record of Decision was released, opening up the entire coastal plain. And last month, Congress voted to strike down the Biden-era land-management plan, which restricted drilling to a small section of the refuge to protect wildlife.
Oil in the NPR-A
The National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska (NPR-A) is a vast area in northernmost Alaska, just to the west of the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. In October, the Bureau of Land Management began accepting nominations for areas for a future lease sale. The sales coincide with rollbacks on protections in the area, opening up more than 18.5 million acres to lease — including critical habitat for migratory birds and calving grounds for the Teshekpuk caribou herd. Earlier this month, Trump signed Senate Joint Resolution 80 into law, stripping restrictions set up in 2022 by the Biden administration meant to protect ecologically delicate areas within the NPR-A from development.
Construction for ConocoPhillips’ massive Willow project — approved under Biden, and the first major development in the reserve — is also well underway, with oil production expected before 2030.
The road to King Cove
For 50 years, the 750-person community of King Cove has wanted a road to the Cold Bay airport. In late October, the Interior Department signed a land exchange agreement to facilitate an 18-mile, single-lane gravel road, primarily running through Izembek National Wildlife Refuge. The land swap moves less than 500 acres of refuge land to the Alaska Native Corporation King Cove Corp., which will then sell 1,739 acres of its land to add to the refuge.
Proponents of the swap say it addresses decades-long public safety concerns while also increasing subsistence access for residents. But, in November, several tribal governments — the Native Village of Paimiut, Native Village of Hooper Bay and Chevak Native Village — and environmental groups sued the administration, hoping to block the land trade to protect bird habitat.
“If the Izembek road happens, it will cause a lot of chaos for Alaska Native people in my region who still live off the land and sea. The birds we hunt may not be able to survive,” said Chief Edgar Tall Sr. of the Native Village of Hooper Bay in a Nov. 12 press release.
Building Ambler Road
For years, the construction of the 211-mile industrial road to the Ambler Mining District was tied up in litigation. In 2024, President Biden rejected the road plan due to its anticipated impact on wildlife habitat and waterways. The analysis found the project would require 3,000 stream crossings, impacting sheefish and the declining Western Arctic caribou herd — both critical subsistence food sources for people in the Brooks Range area of Northern Alaska.
But on Oct. 6, President Trump approved an appeal from AIDEA, allowing federal agencies to reissue permits for the road. He also announced that the U.S. is partnering with Trilogy Metals, investing $35.6 million to support exploration in the area, and making the federal government a 10% shareholder in Trilogy Metals. Later that month, the AIDEA board voted to make $50 million available for the construction of the project. The road would open up the remote area containing deposits of copper, silver, gold, lead, cobalt and other metals.
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