Earthjustice Responds to Senate Vote Reopening Arctic Refuge to Oil Drilling

Earthjustice Responds to Senate Vote Reopening Arctic Refuge to Oil Drilling

Senators use Congressional Review Act to reinstate Trump-era plan maximizing oil drilling

Contacts

Becca Bowe, Earthjustice, [email protected], (415) 217-2093

Today the U.S. Senate voted to approve a resolution under the Congressional Review Act (CRA) that serves to open the entire Coastal Plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil-and-gas drilling. The CRA vote strikes down a 2024 land-management plan that kept some of the Coastal Plain off limits to the oil industry. This effectively turns back the clock to 2020, reinstating a drilling plan from the first Trump administration opening the entire 1.6 million acres of the Coastal Plain to the oil industry.

The following is a statement from Laura Esquivel, Sr. Legislative Representative at Earthjustice:

"Senators who voted in favor of this resolution have their priorities upside-down. Instead of working to protect Indigenous livelihoods, local communities, wildlife, and irreplaceable landscapes, they are selling out and selling off our nation's public lands to enrich polluting corporations. We are grateful to the Senators on both sides of the aisle who stuck to their principles on this vote and refused to support this reckless agenda."

Background

The Arctic Refuge is one of America's wildest and most ecologically important places, home to the Porcupine Caribou Herd, denning polar bears, musk oxen, wolves, and more than 200 species of migratory birds. Residents of nearby Alaska Native villages who are part of the Gwich'in Nation are spiritually and culturally tied to the health of the caribou and the land. Protecting the caribou is a matter of fundamental human rights.

President Trump issued an executive order on his first day in office that sought to reopen both the Arctic Refuge and the Western Arctic to oil-and-gas drilling - and the Department of Interior has already taken steps to move ahead with these plans. The use of the CRA here is unnecessary and illustrates how out-of-step lawmakers are with a majority of Americans who want to protect these public lands, not open them to drilling. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge won't lower energy prices, nor will it provide significant returns for taxpayers. After two real-world tests, the Arctic Refuge leasing program failed to generate any substantial industry interest, bringing in just 1% of the revenue the administration and Congress promised it would.

About Earthjustice

Earthjustice is the premier nonprofit environmental law organization. We wield the power of law and the strength of partnership to protect people's health, to preserve magnificent places and wildlife, to advance clean energy, and to combat climate change. We are here because the earth needs a good lawyer.