Drue Pearce joins Interior to work on 'unleashing Alaska's energy'

Kay Cashman

Petroleum News

As reported by Liz Ruskin of Alaska Public Media on May 23 from Washington, D.C., Drue Pearce, a former president of the Alaska Senate, has taken a new job in the U.S. Interior Department.

"I'm counselor to the assistant secretary in the Land and Minerals hallway," she said in an interview from her new office.

"Hallway" is not actually part of her title, but Ruskin explained that it describes how the Interior Department's D.C. headquarters is organized. The assistant secretary Pearce will work under is charged with implementing the Trump administration's executive orders to unleash Alaska's energy potential.

Pearce has worked for decades in this arena, as a federal appointee during the George W. Bush administration and the first Trump presidency, and most recently as a consultant and lobbyist at the firm Holland & Hart.

Ruskin wrote that Pearce calls some issues she'll be working on, like opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil development, old friends.

"I think I had my first ANWR briefing when I was first elected, but not yet sworn in, all the way back in 1984," Pearce said. "And we're still at it."

As reported in last week's Petroleum News, Interior has also hired Kara Moriarty, president of the Alaska Oil and Gas Association. Her title hasn't been announced but according to Suzanne Downing's May 21 issue of Must Read Alaska, "Our intel says she will be working on the Alaska-focused executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20."

Executive Order 14153, signed by Trump, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum's Order 3422, were both titled "Unleashing Alaska's Extraordinary Resource potential."

They outlined the "initial suite of actions" to implement the orders.

It appears Moriarty and Pearce will be involved in establishing the next suite of actions.

--KAY CASHMAN