An arctic wind cut across Prudhoe Bay, sending spindrifts swirling as Energy Secretary Chris Wright stepped onto a podium hastily erected among oil wells and pump stations. The gray summer sunlight scattered over ice-rimmed ponds, shadows gathering in the hollows of low heaves and stretching over the tundra. But the visitors gathered around him were less interested in the scenery than what lay beneath it. Wearing a hard hat perched above a pair of safety glasses, Wright gripped a lectern with red-knuckled hands chilled by the cold air. “I want to say to all of you standing here today,” he told a gaggle of oil workers, “you are the greatest liberators in human history.” <img decoding="async" src="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all" sizes="(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" srcset="https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=330 330w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=768 768w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1200 1200w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=1536 1536w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=160&h=90&crop=1 160w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=640&h=853&crop=1 640w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=96&h=96&crop=1 96w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all&w=150 150w, https://grist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/DOI-Alaska-2.jpg?quality=75&strip=all 1024w" alt="" data-caption="From left: U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan takes a selfie with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, an energy worker, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.From left: U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan takes a selfie with EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, an energy worker, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. Andrew King / DOI Hovering nearby were Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Lee Zeldin, head of the Environmental Protection Agency. It was the kind of Cabinet-level entourage that made the remote industrial site feel like a campaign stop. They were on a multiday tour of northern Alaska, hyping plans for a pipeline that would carry liquified natural…
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