Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: We're joined now by Governor Mike Dunleavy of Alaska. Governor
Speaker 2: is great to see you, Thank you for joining us.
Speaker 2: Great here in Milwaukee. We're all sweating a little bit here.
Speaker 2: It's not quite a last weather.
Speaker 3: I hope you're enjoying it so far. What do you
Speaker 3: make of this pick? JD. Vance?
Speaker 2: So many of us were surprised by it not being
Speaker 2: a surprise name yesterday.
Speaker 3: This has been something long in the works.
Speaker 4: Oh well, I think I think the President is picking
Speaker 4: somebody that will carry forth his agenda after he leaves
Speaker 4: office and while President Trump is in office. Obviously JD.
Speaker 4: Vance will be a close confidant to the president. He's younger.
Speaker 4: That'll probably appeal to younger Americans. But I think, you know,
Speaker 4: I have confidence in the President that he knows what
Speaker 4: he's doing. I don't know JD that well. I know
Speaker 4: he's a senator from Ohio, but hope you get to
Speaker 4: know here in the future. Off the November fifth.
Speaker 1: Well, he's only been a Senator from Ohio for about
Speaker 1: a year and a half. He is a political newbie,
Speaker 1: and I wonder as a sitting Republican governor. But you
Speaker 1: think about the idea of a governor who has executive
Speaker 1: leadership running one of the states in the United States
Speaker 1: of America, why that selection may not have been made.
Speaker 4: Well, keep in mind President Trump was not elected in
Speaker 4: the office before he was elected president. And sometimes when
Speaker 4: you get a perspective outside of government, and I've been
Speaker 4: outside of government, I've been inside of government. Sometimes when
Speaker 4: you get a perspective outside of government, you carry a
Speaker 4: perspective of the people into government as opposed to being
Speaker 4: a career government official, and you know, looking at the
Speaker 4: world from that perspective. So I think that's what probably factored,
Speaker 4: you know, at least partly into the decision by the
Speaker 4: president bring.
Speaker 2: Us your a unique perspective on energy coming from Alaska,
Speaker 2: and what a Trump two point o would mean, because
Speaker 2: the Biden administration is reminding us on the daily that
Speaker 2: our output right now, we're pumping more oil and gas
Speaker 2: than ever in the history of the United States. Yet
Speaker 2: there seems to be this idea that Trump would be
Speaker 2: friendlier to the energy sector than Joe Biden.
Speaker 3: What would in fact change.
Speaker 5: I think he will, I think of the luck for it.
Speaker 4: Tell us specifically, I mean President Biden has called for
Speaker 4: a moratorium on shipping gas overseats.
Speaker 5: That's not going to happen.
Speaker 3: Under President So that's lifted immediately.
Speaker 4: Yeah, okay, in terms of anwar, which was the National
Speaker 4: Whilife Refuge in Alaska on the North Slope where there
Speaker 4: is oil in his gas. Under the twenty seventeen law
Speaker 4: that was passed, those leases went up for sale. The
Speaker 4: Biden administration illegally, and it is true it's illegally shut
Speaker 4: those leases down. That'd be lifted, I believe under President Trump.
Speaker 4: And then taking up upwards of thirteen million acres of
Speaker 4: NPRA National Patrolling Reserve off the table for oil and gas.
Speaker 5: I think that'll go back on the table.
Speaker 4: President Trump was the best president in the history of
Speaker 4: Alaska from my perspective. When I came into office and
Speaker 4: I had my first meeting with President Trump, he said
Speaker 4: to me, what can I do to help Alaska? And
Speaker 4: that was every single meeting, and he probably did more
Speaker 4: than any other president in the history of the state.
Speaker 4: President Biden. Under his administration, there are approximately sixty five
Speaker 4: actions by the federal government against Alaska, taking land off
Speaker 4: the table for oil and gas exploration, closing down the
Speaker 4: tongest National Force not going through with a land exchange
Speaker 4: to help some of our indigenous people in King Kove
Speaker 4: be able to get a road out so their people
Speaker 4: don't have to fight weather with their planes.
Speaker 5: The list goes on and on or not.
Speaker 4: But under our president that we have right now, President Biden,
Speaker 4: sixty five actions.
Speaker 5: That's more actions against.
Speaker 4: A state than the federal government has against places like Iran.
Speaker 5: It's incredible if.
Speaker 1: We could just continue the energy conversation for a moment longer.
Speaker 1: What we have heard a lot from Donald Trump and
Speaker 1: those close to him is this idea that it's just
Speaker 1: deregulation on leasha American energy, if you will, and he
Speaker 1: spoke of it to that idea. But when we think
Speaker 1: about these oil and gas companies, which we're very familiar
Speaker 1: with here at Bloomberg, they have to be incentivized to
Speaker 1: actually spend their capital. Capital discipline has been the name
Speaker 1: of the game for years. It's about we're turning it
Speaker 1: to shareholders, not necessarily investing in new production in a
Speaker 1: world that is trying to transition to green energy. So
Speaker 1: beyond just deregulating, does more need to be done to
Speaker 1: incentivize these business businesses? To actually drill more well in
Speaker 1: places like.
Speaker 5: Less truly deregulate. That is going to save money.
Speaker 4: You won't have to spend as much money potentially on
Speaker 4: permitting and a litigation. And to the concept of transition,
Speaker 4: I really believe that that concept disappeared several months ago
Speaker 4: with the advent of new chips from the video, the
Speaker 4: Blackbell chip, the whole AI movement. You're going to need
Speaker 4: three to six times as much energy as you have
Speaker 4: now to power those server factories. So I think it's
Speaker 4: going to be additionality, not transition. They're going to see
Speaker 4: more discussion about additionality. More win than solar, more oil
Speaker 4: and gas, more nuclear, more any type of energy possible.
Speaker 4: And I think the locales and the countries that win
Speaker 4: the energy war and that respect are going to win
Speaker 4: the supercomputing in the AI world to war too.
Speaker 2: If you were the energy secretary, and you can respond
Speaker 2: to that as you want, how would you approach nuclear
Speaker 2: This is something actually we talk about a lot on
Speaker 2: Bloomer because of the incredible boom and data centers and
Speaker 2: AI and the massive amounts of power required. We're talking
Speaker 2: about now potentially opening data centers on the sites of
Speaker 2: nuclear power plants.
Speaker 3: What does the future hold form and nuclear?
Speaker 4: You know, nuclear has had a troubled pass and unfortunately
Speaker 4: some of the President Scott I think is unwarranted. There's
Speaker 4: probably been fewer individuals killed or died as a result
Speaker 4: of nuclear accidents and almost any other type of energy
Speaker 4: put forward in terms of accidents. But if I were
Speaker 4: the Energy Secretary, and we're dreaming here for a moment,
Speaker 4: I would facilitate a consortium amongst states, among private industry
Speaker 4: provinces in Canada and maybe other countries to come up
Speaker 4: with a calendar, for example, on small nukes, to say
Speaker 4: how many small nukes can we get in the hopper,
Speaker 4: to permit to design, and to get a whole industry
Speaker 4: set up behind creating new nuclear facilities across the country.
Speaker 4: I think that's one of the things that the nuclear
Speaker 4: industry wants is they want to know if we're going
Speaker 4: to begin a process of creating a whole new industry
Speaker 4: on small nukes, do we have the commitment to actually
Speaker 4: fund those nukes, pay for those nukes, and cite those
Speaker 4: nukes in various places.
Speaker 5: So I think that would be a big stop.
Speaker 1: Governor. I just picked up on the words you use there,
Speaker 1: we're dreaming here? Are you saying that is another way
Speaker 1: to say we're speaking hypothetically or because you actually do
Speaker 1: dream of being Energy secretary?
Speaker 5: No?
Speaker 4: No, no, that was that was hypothetical. I'm just saying
Speaker 4: for the moment.
Speaker 1: Here, So Donald Trump offered you that job, Well.
Speaker 4: I'd have to have discussions with the president, but you know,
Speaker 4: I'm looking forward to working with the president, helping the
Speaker 4: president and moving this great country forward and Alaska forward.
Speaker 3: Have you spoken with him since Saturday?
Speaker 4: I spoke with his campaign folks, and I sent him
Speaker 4: a text. But you know, I also understand that after
Speaker 4: such a traumatic moment, the President's going to need to
Speaker 4: talk with his in a circle on his family more
Speaker 4: so than folks.
Speaker 3: Spond Was he texting over the weekend?
Speaker 4: He was textually with some I got a text back
Speaker 4: immediately from a campaign chair, So we're in contact.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Well, as we continue to grapple with the aftermass of
Speaker 1: this week, and pretty much every person we have talked to,
Speaker 1: elected official or otherwise has talked about how the tone
Speaker 1: of this convention needs to be different. As a result,
Speaker 1: much more toned down rhetoric, the lowering of the temperature
Speaker 1: across the board more of a message of unity. And
Speaker 1: I just wonder, given what you see in your state,
Speaker 1: or just in your position as a governor, if you
Speaker 1: see in America that is truly capable of that right now,
Speaker 1: given how deeply rooted our division seemed to.
Speaker 4: Be, I do I think what happened. Yes, they shook
Speaker 4: everyone to the core. I really do believe that. And
Speaker 4: I was on the floor yesterday on the convention, and
Speaker 4: I did not pick up from anyone that there was
Speaker 4: an attitude or atmosphere of vindictimness or quote going after folks.
Speaker 5: Quite the opposite.
Speaker 4: I think people were excited about the possibilities of another
Speaker 4: Trump administration coming in here November fifth. The discussions were
Speaker 4: very I think positive, And you know, I'm an individual
Speaker 4: that doesn't really tolerate that type of talk, to be
Speaker 4: honest with you, I'm not part of that, don't want
Speaker 4: to be part of that. And I think I think
Speaker 4: then I hope the country is at a point now
Speaker 4: where we start to focus more on policies as opposed
Speaker 4: to personalities.
Speaker 2: Well, tonight's theme, today's theme crime and immigration. If there's
Speaker 2: any one of these four days where the rhetoric could
Speaker 2: get hot, where the red meat's going out the crowd.
Speaker 2: I presume it will be today.
Speaker 3: Do you agree?
Speaker 5: Possibly?
Speaker 4: Possibly, But I mean those two topics, crime and immigration,
Speaker 4: I think are topics that are near and dear to
Speaker 4: most Americans. Hearts, and we are a country of immigrants.
Speaker 4: We are a country of immigrants. But I believe in
Speaker 4: a strong wall with many doors. I believe that we
Speaker 4: should have a strong wall in which we have immigration,
Speaker 4: in which we're bringing people in this country that want
Speaker 4: to be Americans are going to contribute to America. Unfettered,
Speaker 4: wide open borders, I think is a catastrophe for any
Speaker 4: sovereign in the world, especially this country. And in terms
Speaker 4: of crime, I think over the last couple of years,
Speaker 4: we've seen our cities burn, We've seen the homeless issue escalate.
Speaker 4: I think it's problematic, and I do think a change
Speaker 4: in administration will bring changes on the ground.
Speaker 1: Well, it's interesting to hear you say this is the
Speaker 1: governor of Alaska, which is perhaps furthest removed from the
Speaker 1: southern border, at least in a physical senses as any
Speaker 1: state can be. So what extent would you say this
Speaker 1: is the dominant thought? Well, we know people that you governed.
Speaker 1: Where is it a different issue.
Speaker 4: We are far away, but unfortunately for Alaska, we've had
Speaker 4: more depths per capita through fetanyl than any other state
Speaker 4: in the country. Met fentanyl is coming through the southern border.
Speaker 5: So just that.
Speaker 4: Alone, if we can somehow impact that effect that in
Speaker 4: a positive way to reduce that flow, it's going to
Speaker 4: help Alaska, it's going to help every country in the
Speaker 4: state in the United States, probably Hawaii as well, even
Speaker 4: though Hawaii is in the Middle Pacific. But unfettered borders
Speaker 4: doesn't help anyone. And as I mentioned, in Alaska's case,
Speaker 4: the fetanyl coming of the border hurts us as well.
Speaker 1: Is that so much a border issue if I could
Speaker 1: ask you quickly, or is that actually a China issue
Speaker 1: at the root?
Speaker 5: How do we a combination of both? Probably a combination
Speaker 5: of both.
Speaker 4: But if you have a southern border in which there
Speaker 4: are thousands in thousands and thousands of people coming over,
Speaker 4: not checked, unfettered getting into the country, and you have
Speaker 4: cartels in Mexico, it doesn't take you know, it doesn't
Speaker 4: take a genius put two and two together that you're
Speaker 4: gonna have some drug problems.
Speaker 2: It's really interesting to hear that that's a long journey
Speaker 2: from the southern border to Alaska, talk to us about
Speaker 2: the path that it takes and the policy needed to
Speaker 2: stop us.
Speaker 4: Just the same way it's the Minnesota re main. You
Speaker 4: could drive to Alaska, you have to go through Canada.
Speaker 4: You can fly, you can mail it, you can take
Speaker 4: it on ships. There's these people are very creative. As
Speaker 4: a response to this, we just passed the bill that
Speaker 4: I signed a week before I came to the Convention
Speaker 4: that increased the penalties for dealing drugs that result in
Speaker 4: a death to a second degree murder charge. Because we
Speaker 4: have to get serious about this. Everybody knows somebody that
Speaker 4: knows somebody that has been impacted by drugs. Everybody knows
Speaker 4: somebody that knows somebody in which they may have had
Speaker 4: a loved one that overdosed on some of these on
Speaker 4: some of these drugs and cut short of promising lives
Speaker 4: for these people. We've got to do something about it.
Speaker 4: The border is part of that solution. Discussions with China
Speaker 4: is part of that solution as well.
Speaker 1: Of course, Senator jd Vance has a very personal history
Speaker 1: with drug abuse in his own family as well. He
Speaker 1: has talked about that openly. He did so again when
Speaker 1: discussing fentanyl in his first interview after being named the
Speaker 1: vice presidential nominee yesterday. As we consider policy that jd
Speaker 1: Vance is likely to adopt, we've been describing him as
Speaker 1: a populist, an isolationist, potentially just a newer, younger version
Speaker 1: of Donald Trump. How do you see your party changing
Speaker 1: as a Republican governor as we are not just considering
Speaker 1: President Donald Trump, but potentially a vice president jd Vance
Speaker 1: who is very very similar.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 4: I think again time will tell exactly what the new
Speaker 4: vice president nominee is really thinking on some of these issues.
Speaker 4: I tend to know what President Trump is thinking on
Speaker 4: these issues. The change is that you're referring to the
Speaker 4: I don't know how big. I don't know how large
Speaker 4: or big those changes are really going to be. I
Speaker 4: think there's going to be some nuances and implementation. I
Speaker 4: think there's going to be some emphasis on certain policy decisions.
Speaker 4: But I don't know how great it's changed. I mean,
Speaker 4: I think the Republican Party, this.
Speaker 1: Isn't Mitch McConnell's Republican Party anymore.
Speaker 4: Really, I think it's the America's Republican Party. I think
Speaker 4: when Donald Trump came in, it became a party of
Speaker 4: the people as opposed to elected officials, politicos, oligarchs, etc.
Speaker 2: There are fifty thousand people here for this Republican National
Speaker 2: Convention in Milwaukee. Most of them have never been to Alaska,
Speaker 2: and I'm guessing will never go.
Speaker 3: What do you want to know? What do you want
Speaker 3: them to know about that?
Speaker 4: Well, from an economic standpoint, Alaska's part of the solution
Speaker 4: for America. We have the largest oil field in North
Speaker 4: American conventional oil field in North America.
Speaker 5: We have over one.
Speaker 4: Hundred trillion cubic feet of gas that can help American
Speaker 4: our Asian allies. We have forty nine of the fifth
Speaker 4: the rare earths that could help the United States be
Speaker 4: strategically independent of China. We have one seventh of the
Speaker 4: country's timber. We have some of the largest fishing ports
Speaker 4: in North America.
Speaker 5: No, we're a bashing of freedom.
Speaker 4: We're the only Republican state left on the West Coast,
Speaker 4: and we take our freedom seriously. We're a Second Amendment
Speaker 4: state on any other We have the highest per capital
Speaker 4: of retired veterans in the state of Alaska. We have
Speaker 4: admirals and generals that retire to the state of Alaska,
Speaker 4: and that we are the fort for Alaska. We're only
Speaker 4: two and a half miles from Russia, fifty water miles
Speaker 4: from Russia. We have the Russians in our airspace that
Speaker 4: we chase out on a continual basis. We have the
Speaker 4: Chinese working their ships up through the Bering Strait, so
Speaker 4: we are a strategic part of this country.
Speaker 1: Great Governor, well, thank you for spending some of your
Speaker 1: time here in Wisconsin with us. Maybe one day we
Speaker 1: will see you in Alaska. That's Governor Mike don Levy
Speaker 1: of Alaska, thank you so much for joining us.