With Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Under Threat – AGAIN – Cantwell Speaks on Senate Floor

With Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Under Threat - AGAIN - Cantwell Speaks on Senate Floor

"Because it is one of the largest remaining untouched ecosystems on our entire planet, I believe we should strive hard to protect it," says Cantwell

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, before the U.S. Senate voted to undo protections for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, urged her colleagues to vote against the measure.

House Joint Resolution 131, which would overturn Biden-era oil and gas drilling limits in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, passed by a 49-45 vote.

In her remarks, Cantwell noted that when bids for potential drilling on the Refuge's 1.56-million-acre Coastal Plain were allowed previously, the offer only raised a few million dollars.

"Many would like to ignore the fragile and irreplaceable beauty that lives along the Coastal Plain in order to search for the oil and gas that may lie beneath it," said Sen. Cantwell. "I hope we won't make an irrevocable, irredeemable mistake in the Senate today by voting to overturn a science-based Record of Decision that was done by the book, and with the public input."

"We should be hammering out a bipartisan agreement instead on other major issues like health care affordability or finding other ways to reduce the cost of living."

The Coastal Plain, the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge, provides critical habitat to more than 250 species, including caribou, polar bears, grizzly bears, wolves, muskoxen, wolverines, and migratory birds. It is also the sacred home of the Gwich'in Nation, who are linked to the Porcupine Caribou herd of the Refuge through their food system, shared environment, and long-standing culture.

With barely two weeks left in President Trump's first term, he auctioned off oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a move Cantwell vociferously opposed. On his first day in office, President Biden signed an executive order placing a temporary moratorium on oil and gas activity in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as well as an executive order prioritizing Tribal sovereignty and self-governance in use, management, and conservation of public lands.

Senator Cantwell has been the leading congressional champion of the Arctic Refuge and repeatedly fought back against the first Trump administration's efforts to roll back protections for the pristine wilderness and cosponsored multiple bills to designate its Coastal Plain as a wilderness area.

Video of Sen. Cantwell's floor speech is HERE; a transcript is HERE.