|
Yesterday, the Trump administration approved a plan to open up 1.5 million acres of the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to oil and gas drilling. The plan opens the refuge's Coastal Plain, overturning 6 decades of protections for the largest remaining wilderness in the United States, which is sacred to indigenous tribes. The plan's approval is the latest event in a decades-long debate over drilling in the region, which culminated in a 2017 Trump tax bill provision to open ANWR to drilling.
Drilling in the region would threaten polar bears and caribou in addition to exacerbating the threat of climate change, which already disproportionately affects high latitudes. Opponents say that the move ignores accepted science: Interior's own environmental impact review found that drilling would harm polar bears, and the department downplayed the risks of climate change in its review.
Proponents of the program claim that it will create new jobs. However, financial institutions have recently expressed resistance to financing drilling in ANWR or the Arctic, and development in the region would be expensive. Additionally, with the oil industry in shambles, it is unlikely that many in the industry will take a risk on unexplored properties with little underlying data.
Ex-oil lobbyist Interior Secretary Bernhardt has pushed drilling since before he took the reins at Interior, where he has continually provided handouts to the industry. In a statement, Center for Western Priorities executive director Jennifer Rokala said, "Essentially, Bernhardt is approving a plan to despoil America’s wildest landscape for oil that we will be using less of in coming decades, all for the benefit of his former and future clients."
|
There's no good time to open up America's largest wildlife refuge to drilling, but it's absolutely bonkers to endanger this beautiful place during a worldwide oil glut."
