(彭博社)唐纳德·特朗普周四告诉参议院共和党人，他将重启阿拉斯加北极国家野生动物保护区的石油钻探，推翻了拜登政府取消这片冰冻荒野租约的举动。

“他说，”我们会重新讨论这个问题，”北达科他州共和党参议员凯文·克莱默在与特朗普和其他共和党参议员举行闭门会议后告诉记者。“我们开放了它，拜登关闭了它，他说当我们回来时我们会重新开放它。”

2017 年，特朗普领导下的国会解除了对该地区实施了 40 年之久的能源开发禁令，强制在这个长期因其石油和天然气潜力而备受青睐的地区进行租赁销售。

总统乔·拜登暂停了这些销售，他的政府去年开始采取措施阻止该地区的石油开发，取消了 2021 年出售的钻井租约，并禁止附近一半以上的国家石油储备区进行勘探。

随着选举季进入高潮，特朗普在国会山举行了一天会议，随后发表了上述言论。这位前总统此前曾告诉众议院共和党人，他计划废除拜登推广电动汽车的政策。

克莱默说，特朗普在全国共和党参议院委员会会议上谈到了能源在通胀中的作用，他表示“能源价格居高不下是因为我们把供应留在地下”。

克莱默说：“我们经常谈论我们的石油储量比沙特阿拉伯多，我们应该恢复生产。”

(Bloomberg) – Donald Trump told Senate Republicans Thursday he would restart oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, reversing a move by the Biden administration to cancel leases in the frozen wilderness.

“He said, ‘We’ll get back to that,’” Senator Kevin Cramer, a North Dakota Republican, told reporters after emerging from a closed-door meeting with Trump and other Republican senators. “He opened it up, and Biden closed it down, and he said when we get back we’ll get it back open.”

Congress under Trump lifted a 40-year-old ban on energy development in the area in 2017, mandating lease sales in an area long prized for its oil and gas potential.

President Joe Biden suspended those sales, and his administration last year began taking steps to thwart oil development the region, canceling drilling leases sold in 2021 and placing more than half of the nearby National Petroleum Reserve off-limits to exploration.

Trump’s remarks followed a day of meetings around the Hill as election season kicks into high gear. The former president earlier told House Republicans he planned to do away with Biden’s policies promoting electric vehicles.

Trump, during his meeting at the National Republican Senatorial Committee, spoke about the role of energy in inflation, saying “energy prices remain high because we keep supply in the ground,” Cramer said.

“He talked a lot about us having more oil than Saudi Arabia and that we should get back to open production,” Cramer said.