(Bloomberg) -- President-elect Donald Trump’s vision for American energy dominance promises “certainty” that will encourage more investments in oil and gas, Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy said.
That could entice more spending by companies on acreage in remote stretches of the state, including offshore waters now largely foreclosed to development and part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Dunleavy said in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power.”
Just two oil companies participated in the last auction of drilling rights in the Arctic refuge conducted just days before Trump’s first term ended in January 2021. And only one company, Hilcorp Alaska LLC, bid on territory in Alaska’s Cook Inlet during a congressionally mandated sale two years ago.
But Dunleavy said the outcome would be different if Trump holds new oil auctions in the region, with investor confidence bolstered both by the policy outlook in Washington and an anticipated surge in electricity demand.
“When you’re selling leases, but on the other hand you’re telling folks to not invest in the Arctic, to not put money in the Arctic and to not put money into oil, it provides an uncertain future for those investors,” he said. “I think under the Trump administration that’s going to change.”