WASHINGTON — Alaska Gov. Bill Walker pressed the president on slow federal permits at a White House meeting Wednesday.
Walker was invited to sit down with President Donald Trump, several other governors and tribal leaders, and the heads of the Energy Department and Environmental Protection Agency as a part of "energy week," the White House's policy theme for the week.
Walker said he spoke to Trump about opening access, filling the trans-Alaska pipeline, and speeding the process by which federal permits are granted for drilling on federal land.
Some states are combining duplicative state and federal permitting processes, and "that's one of the things that I'd like to explore to do that to help move the process along a bit," Walker said in an interview after the White House meeting.
Walker said he also invited Trump to come to Alaska this summer, though there's no telling if a presidential visit is likely.
"I applaud President Trump's vision for the United States to gain global energy dominance," Walker said later in a written statement.
Trump opened the meeting with remarks made available to the press, advocating greater use of U.S. energy reserves.
"We're here to talk about how we can create new prosperity for our citizens by unlocking vast treasures of energy reserves," Trump said.
"Many of our states have also been denied access to the abundant energy resources on their lands that could bring greater wealth to the people and benefit to our whole nation," Trump said, pointing specifically to difficulties with accessing oil, gas and coal on tribal lands.