Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan says he’s pitching the Alaska LNG Project to the U.S. Department of Defense for potential investment. Speaking to reporters on Tuesday, Sullivan said bringing the federal government on to the project could “dramatically lower the cost of capital.”
“One of the things that we are doing right now with Glenfarne and the Department of Defense is trying to see if there's a way in which the Department of Defense can be a buyer of gas that would come down through the pipeline,” he said.
Glenfarne is the private company that assumed majority ownership of the project earlier this year. A company spokesperson declined to say whether the company is pitching the project to the Pentagon.
If it’s built, the Alaska LNG Project would move natural gas from the North Slope to Southcentral for export. The long-sought project is estimated to cost $44 billion. President Donald Trump has shown interest, boosting hopes that it might finally attract investors.
The proposed pipeline route passes near Alaska’s largest military bases – Fort Wainwright and Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks and Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.
A spokesperson for the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, which owns the state’s 25% project stake, says the Fairbanks military bases could connect to the pipeline through a proposed project spur. JBER is already connected to the ENSTAR Natural Gas system, to which the project would be connected.
Sullivan says he’s already pitched the project to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and to Hegseth’s deputy, Steve Feinberg.
“The senior leaders of the Pentagon are very aware of this opportunity and that Glenfarne is quite interested in that,” Sullivan said.
And he says the project could benefit from the budget reconciliation bill moving through Congress.
Among other things, the bill would replace an existing federal loan program with a new one – the Energy Dominance Financing program. Sullivan says the bill puts about $1 billion toward it.
“I was on a conference call with Secretary Wright, and, you know, that's the capitalization in the program,” he said. “He is very interested in looking at the AK LNG Project as one of the projects by which they would use this new energy dominance financing mechanism.”
Glenfarne, the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation and Gov. Mike Dunleavy have previously said they’ll seek financing from the private sector.
“Because of the amount of private sector capital, you really don't need to rely on government capital, and that's been made clear countless times,” Dunleavy told KDLL last month.
The project has existing federal loan guarantees approved under former President Joe Biden. Sullivan says the program was never set up under Biden, but that he’s renewing that push under Trump.
