EXCLUSIVE: Alaska Department of Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum discussed President Trump’s key role in unleashing energy independence in the state while speaking to Fox News Digital and explaining that Alaskan resources are ready to be used if the push to acquire Greenland is unsuccessful.
Crum, speaking to Fox News Digital at the State Financial Officer Foundation conference in Orlando, Florida, explained that the “vast majority” of state government funds in Alaska come from developing natural resources, including mining and crude oil, and praised the Trump administration’s moves to reverse course from the Biden administration when it comes to that development.
“President Trump, you know our Governor Dunleavy has actually said he’s probably one of the best presidents for Alaska,” Crum said. “In his first term he did tremendous things for us and now in his second term, we were the only state that had an executive order directed at us and that was such a crucial thing, and it really improved our economic outlook within the state.”
On the first day of his presidency, Trump signed an executive order advancing the Ambler Access Project, a 211-mile industrial road through the Brooks Range foothills that enables commercial mining of copper, zinc and other materials in a remote Arctic area in Northwest Alaska.
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Fox News Digital spoke to Alaska Department of Revenue Commissioner Adam Crum, right, about energy production in his state. (Fox Digital/Getty)
Experts told Fox News Digital in February that the action, which reversed course from the Biden administration, will play a critical role in developing mineral resources in the state.
“We think that we are on the precipice in Alaska on an energy boom, when it comes to large-scale oil development, the natural gas line getting developed that the president really pushes very hard for, as well as all of these critical minerals that we need to get processed,” Crum said.
President Trump has vocally called for the United States to acquire Greenland for strategic purposes as well as due to its natural resources. Crum told Fox News Digital that Alaska is ready to step up when it comes to natural resources.
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President Donald Trump speaks to the media in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
“We do have our own Greenland. We have our Greenland that has a long history and track record of developing these resources in an area of the world that people would never have thought that it could be done responsibly,” Crum said. “We’ve processed oil for over 60 years on the Arctic Ocean, and we have done so while at the same time building an 800-mile crude oil pipeline that actually has seen the caribou numbers increase over time with that pipeline being built. And so Alaskans are conservationists by nature.”
“We are hunters, we are fishermen, our indigenous population are subsistence, they gather, but we are the ones who use the land. We also want to be able to develop the land, so we make sure we do it the correct way,” Crum continued. “In Alaska, we call it the Alaska standard. We don’t need outside groups telling us that we have to do it responsibly. This is what we demand of companies as they come up there. Come up, be profitable, be clean. Profit Alaska, let Alaskan’s have jobs and opportunities and also go enjoy the outdoors.”
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Aerial view of oil fields in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Prudhoe Bay on March 28. (Simon Bruty)
Ultimately, Crum told Fox News Digital that Alaskan energy independence will not only be good for the United States, but it will also help push back against dependence on countries that have been hostile to the country, including China.
“We also have antimony deposits, which is a rare thing because China is the vast producer and processor of antimony, which is needed for not only technology, but also like munitions and military, and so we’ve got very viable deposits within Alaska on these things,” Crum explained.