Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. We have a great opportunity to bring back the Governor of Alaska, Mike Dunlevy with us on Bloomberg TV and Radio. Governor, welcome back to Balance of Power. It's great to see you. And as I think I've made clear here, you had very little notice to put all of this together, So I understand it's been a busy couple of days. Is Alaska ready?
Oh yeah, Alaska's ready. We have the venue already selected. The White House has already done that at our joint base Elmendorff Richardson here in Anchors, So it's going to be pretty secure. The President's going to land there and they've got a lot of space for meetings, and so I think it's a location that works well.
Will you be greeting the President on the tarmac.
I'll be meeting with the President Friday morning briefly and so yes, and we'll have probably a very brief conversation about things such as our Alaska National Gas Line and other things happening here in Alaska.
Understood. Really incredible reporting here about the logistics going into all of this. Anchorage has a limited number of hotel rooms to work with. You're a small rental car market, so we're trucking in all kinds of resources here, whether it's vehicles being flown in from the Lower forty eight or from other parts of your state. How much of this has been a logistical experiment for your office, Well.
Again, most of this is being handled by the White House itself, and they're doing a great job. They've interfaced with us, They've interfaced with our troopers, and i've city police here and Anchorage, and so the vast majority of this is being handled by the White House. It is tourist season. We're in the height of tourist season, so hotels are tight, cars are tight, as you mentioned. But again, having this on the base alleviates a lot of issues, and so it's going to be on the base. Tourism
will continue here. There's going to be a lot of reporters here, a lot of others with their eyes on this great state. So we're prepared. Well.
I should think that that's a pretty good thing for Alaska. Going to be seeing all weekend lots of beauty shots of your state, I'm sure, and a lot of tourists will have stories to tell when they come home. We know the secret services on the ground there, Governor, and I don't know to what extent you can answer these questions. Are there Russian agents in Alaska right now?
I don't know. I don't have the answer to that that that again would be something the White House we know, but if there are, it hasn't been made known to us.
Interesting, as you mentioned, this is taking place here at the joint Base, which gives you, you know, the logistical cover here to keep that sort of self contained. But when you consider the number of folks coming into the state, it's pretty interesting to imagine what it's going to look like in Anchorage. Is this the biggest thing to happen to Anchorage? Ever?
This is one of the Yeah, sure, this is one of the biggest things to happen. And we've we've had we've had the Pope and you know, President Reagan here at one time years ago, obviously, But this is this is a huge, a huge issue, a huge deal for Alaska. It makes sense when you look at the globe. We're only two and a half miles from Russia. The President of Russia just has to fly a few miles across
the Barring Sea to get here. President Trump as to come up from the lower forty eight go through Canada, and so we're closer. I think we're closer to Moscow by about two and a half hours than Washington, DC is going the other way, and so makes sense to be here. We're glad to host it. Whatever we're gonna do to help, especially with this issue of peace, hopefully in Ukraine sooner than later.
Alaska's standing back, Well, that's great, and it's a pleasure to spend some time with you here. As we wait to hear from President Trump, I will let you know that they're mobilizing reporters, so at some point here this hour will end up in the Oval Office, and I suspect he'll have some things to say about this visit Governor.
He's also likely to talk about his Big, Beautiful Bill, which is something that he's and other members of the administration are trying to remind people of now that it's actually being enacted, trying to highlight what they see as the benefits of the bill. Alaska played a pretty big role through your Senator Lisa Murkowski and the final shaping
of that bill. She talked about feeling cheated even though she voted to pass the legislation and had carved out some pretty interesting things for Alaska when it comes to rural hospitals, when it comes to even I believe tax credits for whaling captains, and I suspect that you would probably tell me about the energy enhancements in the Arctic that are going to be coming to your state. What's the most important part of the big beautiful bill when it comes to Alaska.
Well, it's a huge bill. It's got a lot of implications. I mean, there's there's some tax relief in there for almost everyone. As you mentioned rural hospitals, they got a big win, not just here in Alaska but across the country. But really, for us, it's the approach to energy, it's the approach to critical minerals, our resources. We are a resource state. Under the previous administration, and we talked about
that in the past on Bloomberg. We were not treat it well, to be perfectly honest with you, by the Biden administration. As a matter of fact, we had more we called them sanctions, about seventy sanctions by the federal government on Alaska during that time. Well, at the same time, the Biden administration was having conversations with Venezuela, I ran on others for resources, oil especially. So President Trump has been great for the state of Alaska my opinion, the
best president ever for the state of Alaska. He's allowing us to do what we do best. And so that bill is very large, very complex, impacts everyone in this country, all the institutions you can think of. But again, when it comes to resources and energy, it's not just that bill, but the work that the President's done on our Alaska natural gas line, the executive order for Alaska. I mean his first term he opened up a war which frankly was very difficult, difficult to get opened in the past.
But he's done a great job for Alaska. And so again I think there's a lot of things in that bill for everybody.
You ever talked to Senator Murkowski about the role that she played in framing that legislation in favor of Alaska.
Well, we were following it. I mean the Sena, Makowski Center, Sullivan, Congress, and Reggage, they all had a hand in it. And of course, as you're trying to craft a large bill like that, there's going to be some things in there that people aren't going to agree with, but you've got to look at overall in the balance. Does it help Alaska? Does it help the country? And our three federal officials came to the conclusion that does, and so that's why they voted yes on it.
Yeah, Governor, while you're still with us. So I just want to ask you if you start seeing secondary sanctions against countries that buy oil from Russia, even existing sanctions on Russia. Right now, the President has threatened more if this meeting does not go well tomorrow or if there are no outcomes that benefit Ukraine. What does that mean for production for energy output in Alaska.
Well, obviously if there's sanctions on oil, and personally, I think that is a tool that could be applied when you look at what's really happening in the world. It's interesting because many European countries are advocating for tough stance against Russia, yet at the same time they're buying oil and gas from Russia, which doesn't make any sense at all. In essence, they're helping to fuel the war effort on
the part of the Russians. What it does for Alaska, for any oil producing sovereign anywhere in the world, it's going to probably help in the short run because if Russian oil is taken off the market, if Russian gas is taken off the market, it's certainly going to help the United States, but it's going to help other producers
as well. But again, sanctions, I think are a tool that the President is thinking about implementing and maybe maybe stronger sanctions, longer lasting sanctions to help bring this war to an end. And from a security issue, a strategy issue, it's a tool that makes sense.
Governor, what's the most important thing you're going to tell the President tomorrow.
I'm going to thank him for what he's doing for the state of Alaska. Talked to about about the progress down our natural gas line, the forty four billion dollar project which is moving ahead. And I'm going to wish him luck in his discussions with the President of Russia. And uh, we're all gonna hope that there's a piece, a just piece, the war ends and we can get on with investments, we can get on with uh, you know,
being being good neighbors to each other. And so I think it's I think the President is gonna, uh, there's something gonna come out of this, maybe not any final decisions obviously in the four or five hours he's gonna be talking with the President of Russia. But I think it's gonna set the stage for I hope, a long lasting peace and uh that benefits everybody in the world.
We'll be watching for you, assuming we can see his arrival at the air base tomorrow. Governor, it's good to have you back, and I hope the summer tourist season has been treating you well. That's Mike don Levy, the governor of a last big race here