Alaska’s congressional delegation — backed strongly by House and Senate Republicans — just scored a major victory for American energy. Rep. Nick Begich (AK-At Large) introduced House Joint Resolution 131 to roll back the Biden-era restrictions that effectively strangled oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).
Begich’s resolution cleared both the House and the Senate and is now headed to President Trump’s desk for signature. It’s a big win for Alaska, a big win for U.S. energy independence, and a very big defeat for the environmental lockdown policies of the Biden years.
Alaska’s entire congressional delegation lined up behind the measure — Rep. Begich in the House, along with Senators Dan Sullivan and Lisa Murkowski in the Senate. It’s a rare moment of unity and an even rarer moment of Washington actually doing something that strengthens America’s energy future.
And no, we’re not tired of winning – not by a long shot:
Alaska’s congressional delegation on Thursday succeeded in stripping Biden-era protections from the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, moving to expand opportunities for drilling there.
The U.S. Senate voted to eliminate the 2024 leasing program for the refuge that put much of the refuge’s 1.6-million-acre coastal plain off-limits to potential drilling.
The measure, introduced by Alaska U.S. Rep. Nick Begich, heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for a signature, after the House passed it last month.
The vote opens the door for potential oil and gas activity across the coastal plain, as the Trump administration has sought.
This vote does far more than simply reopen the door to oil and gas development.
From the moment President Trump returned to office, we’ve pointed out that while his agenda is strong, many of its reforms require congressional action to make them durable. This is exactly that kind of action. Because it’s a joint resolution, it must pass both chambers and secure the president’s signature — and once enacted, it carries real legal force.
In this case, Congress used the Congressional Review Act to dismantle the Biden-era restrictions. That means the rules don’t just get paused or tweaked — they get wiped off the books entirely. It’s a concrete, structural win that locks in policy rather than leaving it vulnerable to bureaucratic sabotage.
This marks another major step in unlocking America’s energy treasure chest. The targeted areas of ANWR are believed to contain roughly 7.7 billion barrels of recoverable oil with today’s technology. And the U.S. Geological Survey estimates that hundreds of millions more barrels may lie just to the west of those sites.
That’s a massive supply of American-made energy. That’s thousands of good-paying Alaskan jobs. And it’s a huge leap forward for U.S. energy security.
Even better, Alaska’s Native communities in the region have voiced strong support for the move — a reminder that the people who actually live there know the benefits far outweigh the fearmongering:
Alaska Native leaders from the North Slope and the only village inside the refuge praised the vote.
“The federal government and Congress have disregarded our voices for generations,” said Nathan Gordon Jr., mayor of Kaktovik village, in a statement from Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat.
“We are encouraged by this week’s votes in the House and Senate and urge elected officials in Washington to continue listening to our locally elected leaders and prioritizing policies that advance our self-determination,” Gordon said.
This move will deliver a surge of good-paying jobs to a region where economic opportunities are limited. And as for the environmental groups gearing up to complain — their objections ring hollow compared to the voices of the people who actually live there. Alaska’s Native communities and local residents overwhelmingly want the jobs, the investment, and the economic lifeline that responsible exploration and extraction will bring to one of the most remote corners of America.
Congress just cleared another major obstacle, and the people who call the region home are ready to embrace the opportunity.
