Trump Lands $54 Billion For Alaska Pipeline After Half A Century Of Promises

President Donald Trump says a project Alaskans have been promised for half a century is finally getting built, backed by South Korean money.

Speaking at the White House on Wednesday, the president announced that Seoul will pour up to $200 billion into U.S. energy projects, with $54 billion set aside for the Alaska LNG pipeline, a sprawling venture that has sat on the drawing board for decades. He stated:

By building the Alaska LNG pipeline, we will deliver nearly 4 billion cubic feet of liquefied natural gas per day, and that puts us at a level that’s not comparable with anyone else. The United States is already the largest natural gas producer and exporter in the world, and this pipeline will help us expand those exports even further. For five decades, politicians have talked about the Alaska pipeline. I’ve been hearing about it from the time I’m a little boy. The Alaska pipeline is going to be built someday. I was always fascinated by it.

The cash is the first big payout from a $350 billion investment pledge South Korea made during trade talks with Washington last year. That package is divided into $150 billion for shipbuilding and $200 billion for strategic investments.

Besides the Alaska line, the Korean money is headed for eight nuclear power plants and a massive power station in Encinal, Texas, meant to feed chip factories and data centers.

The Alaska plan calls for an 807-mile pipeline from the North Slope down to the state’s southern coast, where the gas would be chilled into liquid and shipped to buyers across Asia. The White House says the line would carry about 3.9 billion cubic feet of gas a day and could churn out up to 20 million metric tons of LNG each year.

Developer Glenfarne, which owns 75% of the project alongside the state of Alaska, plans to build it in two stages. First comes a 739-mile line to supply Alaskans themselves, with the export terminal to follow. Glenfarne is targeting first gas in 2029.

The project has been dogged for years by doubts over its expense and whether it can ever turn a profit. Glenfarne has yet to make a final investment decision and says the project depends on an overhaul of Alaska’s tax structure. Seoul has insisted that any US project it bankrolls must stand on its own commercial merits, and opposition lawmakers in South Korea are not happy.

Kim Sung-won, who chairs the South Korean parliament’s trade committee, told Reuters the business case needed vetting before taxpayers were hit with the burden.

Japanese energy giants JERA and Tokyo Gas have signed preliminary deals to take a combined two million tons a year. Glenfarne said in March it had commitments for 13 million tons annually, but needed another three million to lock in financing.

The announcement lands just weeks before the November midterms, as Trump works to shore up his economic record. It’s also a boost for Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), a longtime pipeline champion, who is locked in a tight reelection battle with Democrat Mary Peltola.

The White House is calling the deal a down payment on Trump’s promise to “unleash American energy.”