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| Dear Friend, |
| The Arctic faces unprecedented threats from aggressive oil and gas drilling proposals. These risky ventures endanger fragile ecosystems, Indigenous communities, and accelerate the climate crisis. |
| Alaska’s Arctic is already warming three to five times faster than the rest of the planet. Tripling down on oil development in the Arctic takes us in exactly the wrong direction in our existential fight to curb climate change and protect these critically important public lands. Yet the Trump administration continues to prioritize oil drilling at the harm of Alaska’s communities. |
| As part of a larger effort to relegate Alaska’s vast irreplaceable landscapes to drilling, mining, and logging, the Trump administration has prioritized fossil fuel industry wishes by recklessly moving to open the entire 1.56 million acre of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development. |
| The administration is now asking for comments on which areas of the Arctic Refuge should lease to fossil fuel companies for drilling. We need to officially register our overwhelming opposition and say: the Arctic should be protected, not drilled for oil and gas. |
| The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge covers about 19.3 million acres in northeast Alaska and is the largest national refuge in the United States. It supports a broad range of species including caribou, brown, black, and polar bears, Dall sheep, moose, foxes, muskoxen, marine mammals including whales and seals, and numerous birds. Within the coastal plain of the Refuge are critical calving grounds of the Porcupine Caribou Herd, which have sustained Gwich’in people for millennia. |
| Proposals to open the Arctic Refuge are only the beginning. This is an early step in the Trump administration’s unprecedented push to maximize oil and gas drilling in Alaska by leasing even more ecologically sensitive lands and waters to the highest-bidding fossil fuel company. |
| People have worked together for decades to defend the Arctic Refuge, because this unique landscape is too special to be sacrificed to the oil industry for profit. That’s why we need to speak up at every opportunity. We must defend the Arctic, advocate for protections, and prevent destruction. |
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Sincerely,
Erik Grafe
Deputy Managing Attorney |
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| Photo Credits: Members of the Porcupine Caribou herd are crossing the Hulahula River. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska (Photo credit: Florian Schulz / protectthearctic.org) |
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