Seoul Gazette - US Accelerates Review for 30-Year Trans-Alaska Pipeline Renewal

The Trump administration is accelerating an environmental review that could authorize the 800-mile Trans-Alaska Pipeline System for another 30 years. The proposal covers the pipeline, pump stations, access roads, bridges and a fuel-gas line within the federal right-of-way.

The Bureau of Land Management reduced the public-comment period to 15 days. Federal consultations commonly last 30 to 60 days or longer depending on complexity. The right-of-way was not due for renewal until 2034, which would have been its third renewal since 1974.

BLM Alaska director Kevin Pendergast said the agency was acting early to secure the pipeline while the administration seeks to expand energy development in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge coastal plain. The agency’s Alaska office did not separately answer a request for comment.

The system has carried oil from the North Slope to the Valdez Marine Terminal since 1977. The source report stated that it had transported more than 19 million barrels over that period, while BLM said average daily throughput in 2025 was 463,000 barrels.

Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said the early process appeared designed to avoid fuller consideration of economic and ecological concerns. Two owners, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil, each gave $1 million to Trump’s inaugural fund, federal records show. Harvest Alaska is also an owner.

The review follows Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, executive order titled “Unleashing Alaska’s Extraordinary Resource Potential,” which directed agencies to increase fossil-fuel development on federal and state land and speed project permits. Congress approved construction of the pipeline on Nov. 16, 1973, shortly after the Arab oil embargo was announced.

Comments were due through the BLM planning website or by email by Sept. 10 at 10 p.m. Alaska time, 11 p.m. Pacific time, or Sept. 11 at 2 a.m. Eastern time.

Environmental and social concerns accompanied the project from its opening, including effects on caribou habitat, permafrost and tribal practices. In 1977, White House science adviser Frank Press warned President Jimmy Carter that rising carbon-dioxide levels could alter the climate. Press projected concentrations would reach 1.5 times the preindustrial level by 2037, but the 420-parts-per-million threshold arrived 14 years earlier.

Alaska is warming two to three times faster than the global average, according to federal data. Since 1971, average annual temperatures have increased by between 2.2 degrees Fahrenheit in central Southeast Alaska and 6 degrees on the North Slope. The changes are melting permafrost and reducing sea and river ice. Glaciers are now losing ice at twice the rate recorded from 1960 through 2004.

Cooper Freeman of the Center for Biological Diversity said oil carried by the pipeline has contributed to climate disruption affecting salmon, caribou and communities. He called for a thorough and public review rather than an expedited authorization extending operations for three decades.

D.Sunwoo--SG