The phrase "drill, baby, drill" was coined by a Republican back in 2008 before Donald Trump had even switched his political affiliation from the Democratic party.
Appropriated by the US president for his 2024 campaign, the slogan has become a policy, which his administration is wielding like a cudgel for its conservative, nationalist agenda.
This week, officials hawked its centrepiece, a plan to open up oil and gas drilling within a 52,000 km2 expanse of Alaskan wilderness, about four-fifths the size of Tasmania.
This would scrap executive orders last year by Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden, aimed at preserving "special areas" on the Alaska North Slope, where the federal government holds a national petroleum reserve created for the US Navy more than a century ago.
On paper, it wasn't a complete lockout. Companies had to prove minimal impact at ground level to get the green light. But Mr Biden spoke of the need to protect "natural wonders" in the form of Arctic habitats for grizzly and polar bears, caribou and migratory birds.
This was a bridge too far for Alaska's biggest oil company ConocoPhillips, a regional government dependent on its revenues — and notably, Alaskan Native groups — who all sued the federal government.
This week, Nagruk Harcharek, an Iñupiat representative who supports allowing resource projects because of their local economic benefits, said the Trump administration had treated "our communities and people as partners, not a check-the-box exercise".
"Too often, federal decisions that affect our homelands are made without the engagement of the North Slope Iñupiat, the people these decisions will affect the most," he told the New York Times.
'New sheriff in town'
In a bit of political theatre on Monday, Alaskan Republican senator Dan Sullivan tore up and tossed Biden's executive orders like confetti for the cameras, declaring there was "a new sheriff in town".
It represents a supersized jump on a move by Mr Trump in his previous White House stint to open up oil exploration on 5,200 km2 of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
And it follows a blueprint laid out by Project 2025, the so-called right-wing wish list hatched by conservative US think tank the Heritage Foundation for Mr Trump to hit the ground running in his second term.
US interior secretary Doug Burgum — a one-time software investor who chaired Australian tech giant Atlassian — said the government was "bringing an energy renaissance that utilises Alaska's resources instead of burying them under red tape".
His department, which last year said the protections struck a balance between oil and gas development and protecting a "globally significant intact habitat for wildlife", this week said they were "unnecessary barriers to responsible energy development".
It claimed an internal review found the protections were at odds with 49-year-old laws around navy fuel reserves, meaning its own officials had "overstepped legal limits" by enforcing them.
Republicans denied the move cleared the way for desecrating America's last great wilderness, including Alaskan senator Lisa Murkowski, who said "world-class environmental standards" would be upheld.
Environmentalists cried foul, accusing the Trump administration of pandering to corporate interests through a reactionary push for more decades of carbon pollution under the guise of shoring up US energy security.
Earthjustice lawyer Erik Grafe said the government was trying to "grease the skids for oil companies intent on industrialising even the most sensitive areas in the western Arctic in pursuit of dirty oil that can have no place in our energy future".
A carrot to lure foreign investors
Mr Trump's plan not only ticks an ideological box of riding roughshod over environmental concerns voiced by left-wing opponents.
It also serves as a diplomatic carrot alongside the stick of US tariffs.
A conga line of officials and industry players from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea toured Alaska this week at the invitation of the US, which is touting investment opportunities in liquefied gas export projects as a quid pro quo for tariff concessions.
Along with the goal of doubling oil production in Alaska after a steep decades-long decline, Mr Trump wants a major new natural gas project as what US energy secretary Craig Wright called a "big, beautiful twin".
The administration's proposed new rules on Alaskan oil and gas projects will be open for comment by the US public for the next two months before they take effect.
On the campaign trail last year, Mr Trump invoked the siren song of cheaper petrol prices for voters with his "drill, baby, drill" mantra.
Big oil and gas, faced with putting their money where the president's mouth is, could prove more difficult to woo.
The sector has applauded his changes but has hardly been champing at the bit for what was already on offer in the Alaskan wilderness.
One exception was Australia's own Santos, which proposes to develop the huge Tikka oil field on Alaska's North Slope.
But its plan involves counteracting its emissions by storing carbon underground, a practice that has been decades in development but its viability remains in question.
Alaska-based analyst Mark Foster last year told local media that new Alaskan oil and gas proposals were dogged by doubts about their cost and performance.
'Think, baby, think'
In January — after Mr Trump took office but before Mr Burgum took over the interior department — its auction on oil and gas drilling leases in the Alaskan Arctic refuge fell flat on its face, receiving no bids.
All nine leases sold in the previous auction had been cancelled, two of them at the request of proponents.
Outgoing deputy secretary of the department, Laura Daniel-Davis, said at the time that the "lack of interest from oil companies" was telling.
"The oil and gas industry is sitting on millions of acres of undeveloped leases elsewhere," she said.
"We'd suggest that's a prudent place to start, rather than engage further in speculative leasing in one of the most spectacular places in the world."
The man who coined the "drill, baby, drill" slogan, former Republican National Committee chair Michael Steele, has suggested Mr Trump throws around the phrase with "very little appreciation or understanding of the current US energy position".
"It is strong and it is driven by robust oil and gas production here at home, making us the top producer of oil and natural gas, thereby reducing our reliance on foreign imports," he said in March.
"It also is driven by our expanding renewable energy capacity, advancements in energy storage and efficiency, and our ability to meet the challenge of grid modernisation, supply chain vulnerabilities, as well as other geopolitical uncertainties.
"So, when I hear Donald Trump say 'drill, baby, drill', maybe it should be 'think, baby, think'."
