By Hobbling Alaska, Biden-Harris Admin Hinders America’s Energy Future
Austin Gae /
Take a hard look at the Biden-Harris administration’s energy policy, which requires critical minerals yet bans their production in Alaska. One word comes to mind: contradictory.
Consider the Biden-Harris administration’s policy projecting that 68% of all new cars sold to be battery electric or plug-in hybrid by 2032. Electric vehicles require six times more minerals than conventional cars, yet the administration has blocked domestic development of critical minerals needed in EV batteries.
This leaves America dependent on China, which produces about 80% of the world’s batteries.
But America can use Alaska’s resources rather than depend on China. The state, known as “The Last Frontier,” has 49 of the 50 critical minerals, including rare earth metals.
Yet instead of taking a commonsense approach to extract these resources, the Biden-Harris administration has taken 66 actions over nearly four years to obstruct Alaska’s production of these minerals, along with hydrocarbons.
In June, for example, the administration blocked a 211-mile road to the Ambler Mining District, which has deposits of copper, zinc, lead, silver, and gold. And last year, the Environmental Protection Agency blocked a proposed gold and copper mine in Bristol Bay. Copper and zinc are considered critical minerals, according to the 2023 Department of Energy’s Critical Materials List.
In addition, Alaska is home to over 3 billion barrels of crude oil and 100 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. It is ranked fourth and 12th among oil- and natural gas-producing states, respectively.
Just as with critical minerals, the Biden-Harris administration has blocked oil and natural gas development. For example, the administration canceled oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR, region estimated to hold about 7.7 billion barrels of oil.
The U.S. government, which owns about 60% of the state’s land, currently views Alaska as a large national park to be left untouched, not a resource-rich state to benefit Americans. The Biden-Harris administration also repealed the 2020 Alaska Roadless Rule, effectively prohibiting timber harvesting and road construction in the Tongass National Forest.
The federal government’s limits on Alaska’s ability to use its natural resources is “as though someone in Alaska said to me, ‘You cannot have your vegetable garden in your backyard,’” Heritage Foundation scholar Diana Furchtgott-Roth testified recently before the House Budget Committee.
As the only state without both a personal income tax and a state sales tax, Alaska funds its state government largely by taxes and royalties from the oil and gas industry. In 2022, the state collected about $4 billion to fund programs that included education and health care.
The Alaska Permanent Fund, which collects revenues from oil and gas, pays eligible citizens an annual dividend. Local governments also collected $449 million from oil and gas property taxes.
Because of the Biden-Harris administration’s regulations, Alaska loses revenue it could use to provide services for citizens. So the state recently sued the Biden-Harris administration to extract compensation for canceled oil and gas leases in ANWR that would have generated billions of dollars.
Americans have the option to drive internal combustion engine vehicles powered by gasoline or electric vehicles dependent on critical minerals for their batteries. In both cases, Alaska plays a key role—as an “energy giant,” as Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, likes to say—in supplying essential resources for transportation.
Regardless of the chosen mode, hindering Alaska’s energy development is a recipe for failure.