ICYMI: Ranking Member Heinrich Delivers Remarks on Senate Floor Stressing Need to Protect Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Blasts Trump Administration For Relentless, Ongoing[...]

WASHINGTON - Yesterday, U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, delivered remarks on the Senate floor stressing the need to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and urged his colleagues to vote no on a Congressional Review Act resolution of disapproval that will upend the management plan for the Arctic Refuge, risking one of the world's last great wild landscapes.

VIDEO: U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee delivers floor speech on Congressional Republicans' Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution of disapproval undoing a resource management plan aimed at protecting the Arctic Refuge, December 3, 2025.

"Simply put, the Arctic Refuge is the crown jewel of the American national wildlife refuge system, and it has been ever since it was set aside in 1960 by President Eisenhower to protect its wildlife and habitat values," started Heinrich. "But that's only part of its story. The Arctic Refuge is also deeply connected to the traditions and daily life of the people who have lived there for thousands of years - longer than this building, this city, or this country have existed. Because the Refuge is not just land. For wildlife, it's essential habitat."

"The Arctic Refuge is under threat from the Trump Administration's relentless attacks on public lands - attacks that put so-called "energy dominance" above every other use. Every other value," continued Heinrich. "Now we could be discussing ways, ways to lower electricity cost, which are spiral out of control, Or doing something about skyrocketing health care cost in the country right now, but instead, we are talking about industrial oil and gas development in the beating hear of our greatest wildlife refuge, literally development the places where the Porcupine Caribou Herd drops their calves every year."

A video of Heinrich's floor speech can be found here.

A transcript of Heinrich's remarks as delivered is below:

Mr. President, nestled in the far northeast corner of Alaska is one of the wildest and most untouched places in America - the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

I have been blessed to see this refuge with my own eyes, and I've seen its towering peaks.

I've seen the critical habitat on the coastal plain where caribou drop their calves.

I've even seen its polar bears.

And over the course of a year in the Arctic Refuge, you might also see one of the last great spectacles of migrating caribou, dueling musk ox straight out of the Pleistocene or rare spectacle eiders nesting on the coastal plain.

In fact, the Arctic Refuge is home to hundreds of iconic wildlife species, including 200 species of birds that have called this landscape home since long before humans stepped on this continent.

Simply put, the Arctic Refuge is the crown jewel of the American national wildlife refuge system, and it has been ever since it was set aside in 1960 by President Eisenhower to protect its wildlife and habitat values.

But that's only part of its story.

The Arctic Refuge is also deeply connected to the traditions and daily life of the people who have lived there for thousands of years - longer than this building, this city, or this country have existed.

Because the Refuge is not just land.

For wildlife, it's essential habitat.

For many people who live there and are sustained by its caribou. This place is literally their grocery store.

It's not just a reminder of the past - it's hope for the future.

But that future is at stake.

The Arctic Refuge is under threat from the Trump Administration's relentless attacks on public lands - attacks that put so-called "energy dominance" above every other use.

Every other value.

Today, the Senate will vote on a Congressional Resolution of Disapproval to overturn the management plan for the Arctic Refuge.

And instead of a targeted approach that emphasizes subsistence hunting and wildlife conservation, and a focus on Tribal consultation, a vote for this resolution will-redundantly - open up the entire Coastal Plain of the Refuge to be leased for oil drilling without local input.

I say redundantly, because the Trump Administration has already overturned this management plan.

And Republicans in Congress have already passed legislation requiring this area - a national wildlife refuge -- requiring it to be drilled for oil, despite a complete lack of interest by legitimate industry players.

Now we could be discussing ways, ways to lower electricity costs, which are spiraling out of control.

Or doing something about the skyrocketing health care costs in this country right now, but instead, we're talking about industrial oil and gas development in the beating heart of our greatest wildlife refuge, literally developing the place where the Porcupine Caribou Herd drops their calves every year.

Now, when Congress first debated whether to allow oil development in the Arctic, America's energy landscape looked very different.

We were importing significant amounts of oil, much of it from our political adversaries.

Oil prices were rising, and U.S. energy could not meet demand. Yet, even in that context, in those challenging years, for decades and across both political parties, Congress recognized the irreplaceable ecological and cultural importance of the Arctic Refuge.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle understood that some places are sacred.

Some places are simply too unique to sacrifice.

And together, they kept these lands closed to industrial development.

In fact, it was not until 2017 that a Republican majority reversed that longstanding commitment and opened this refuge to exploitation.

They turned their backs on the American people who own this refuge and embrace the development anywhere and at any cost approach.

Doing so despite the fact that the United States was already experiencing record oil production on public lands and was on its way to being a net energy exporter.

And now they have done it again in their Big Bad Bill.

But this time they want more and more.

To what end?

We know this hasn't worked before.

We know previous efforts to offer leases here have actually been a failure.

Now, they told us that development of the Arctic Refuge would bring in a billion, billion with a B, a billion dollars to the Treasury, to pay off the tax cuts that were in the 2017 bill for billionaires.

But as we all remember, that came up a little short.

In fact, it came up $993 million short, to be exact.

And it's because development in the refuge is so complicated and so expensive.

It's costly in time. Seasons are short. Days can be even shorter. There's not a lot of time to break new ground.

There are no roads, no infrastructure even remotely close to this part of the coastal plain.

That is why it's estimated that oil prices have to be at least 75 dollars per barrel just to break even on oil from the Refuge.

Compare that to today's average cost of an oil barrel, which is hovering around $60.

Legitimate investors knew these pitfalls.

In 2023, the six largest banks in the U.S., the five largest banks in Canada, and 29 other international banks all issued policies against financing drilling in the Arctic Refuge.

The banks. Insurers, too, followed suit.

Which is why the second justification they are using to do this just doesn't make sense: That producing oil in the Refuge will make gas cheaper for everyday Americans.

You can see from the math that this is not remotely true.

If construction and drilling costs are so high that a barrel of oil has to be almost $20 more expensive just to break even, what do you think that does to prices at the gas station when you fill up your car?

Doesn't mean cheaper gas.

The last thing they'll tell you is that: We have to drill everywhere in America, because we're in a, quote, "energy emergency".

The truth is the only energy crisis in America is the one that President Trump has created himself.

It's the skyrocketing utility bills that Americans are facing because of Republican's relentless attacks on affordable, American-made clean energy.

Opening precious wilderness to industrial development is not going to fix that -especially when it's to drill for oil that costs so much to produce.

Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not going to make energy more affordable.

It seems to me, as I stand up here to speak about yet another attack on our public lands, that no place is sacred from this extractive-at-all-costs playbook.

Not even Wildlife Refuges, Mr. President.

What's next?

Are we going to develop geothermal energy in Yellowstone?

Maybe more uranium mining in the Grand Canyon?

I think Teddy Roosevelt must be tired from rolling over in his grave.

The bottom line is that the Arctic Refuge is too unique, too globally important to develop.

It's a wildlife refuge for a reason.

Now, proponents love to hide the fact that this is, in fact, a national wildlife refuge.

They call it all kinds of things so that they don't have to use the phrase Wildlife Refuge.

They'll call it the 1002 area. They'll call it ANWR. It sounds like someplace in the Middle East you would expect oil and gas production.

They don't want us to pay attention to how crazy a prospect developing one of our last remaining untouched landscapes is.

The Arctic Refuge provides subsistence fish and game for people who live in the region.

It serves as a seasonal home to species you might see in your own state, species like Arctic terns and all sorts of waterfowl.

And it is a remarkable, vast and breathtaking wilderness that should inspire us to be better stewards of our wildlife heritage.

The Arctic Refuge is the crown jewel of our National Wildlife Refuge System that belongs to every single American deserves our protection.

So I would urge colleagues to vote no on the CRA today.

Thank you, Mr. President.

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