Mining & Drilling

2025 August - Copper Mining

2025-08-19 Trump pushed back on a court decision to temporarily block the Resolution Copper project, blaming the delay on the “radical left”. For context, the Resolution Copper project is a widely controversial project which aims to develop copper mining upon sacred and protected Native American holy sites protected by treaties since the 1800’s. Also noteworthy, China has invested billions of dollars in this project, so the argument is where does the responsibility lay, with wealthy Chinese investors or the American people.

https://www.kjzz.org/tribal-natural-resources/2025-10-20/from-utah-to-china-where-in-the-world-could-arizona-copper-sitting-under-an-apache-holy-site-go

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-08-08/resolution-copper-mine-inches-closer-as-trump-backs-arizona-project

https://www.cnbc.com/2025/08/20/copper-trump-slams-anti-american-pushback-over-arizona-project.html

https://www.heritage.org/government-regulation/report/time-repeal-the-obsolete-national-environmental-policy-act-nepa

2025 October

2025-10-24 The Trump administration finalized plans to remove protections for the protected coastal plain of Alaska’s National Wildlife Refuge to allow for oil and gas drilling.

https://www.npr.org/2025/10/24/nx-s1-5584883/trump-alaska-wildlife-refuge-oil-gas-drilling

https://alaskabeacon.com/briefs/trump-signs-law-that-revokes-some-limits-on-drilling-in-alaskas-national-petroleum-reserve/

2026 February

2026-02-27 A North Dakota judge ordered Greenpeace to pay $345M to the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline over alleged damages to the developer during anti-pipeline protests in 2016 and 2017.

https://northdakotamonitor.com/2026/02/27/judge-finalizes-order-for-greenpeace-to-pay-345-million-in-north-dakota-oil-pipeline-case/

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/feb/27/north-dakota-greenpeace-access-pipeline-energy-transfer

2026 March

2026-03-02 South Bow planned to revive parts of the Keystone pipeline project.

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/south-bow-plan-revive-parts-keystone-xl-needs-trump-approval-us-oil-pipeline-2026-03-02/

2026-03-14 The Trump administration approved BP’s $5B deep-sea drilling project off the coast of Louisiana and the Gulf of Mexico. This is the same company involved and responsible for the 2010 Deep Water Horizon disaster. This will threaten deep sea ecosystems and marine life.

https://www.democracynow.org/2026/3/17/headlines/trump_admin_approves_bps_5_billion_drilling_project_off_louisiana_coast

https://earthjustice.org/feature/kaskida-bp-oil-drilling

https://www.sej.org/headlines/trump-administration-approves-ultra-deepwater-oil-drilling-plan

https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-blasts-trump-administration-plan-to-allow-deepwater-drilling-in-the-gulf-of-mexico

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill