Victory! Another Year Passes With No Arctic Refuge Drilling Leases

Every year with no drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is a good year -- so you can imagine how thrilled we were this week to learn that the Department of the Interior has confirmed it will "miss its target of holding the first-ever oil drilling lease sale in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge this year due to delays in the environmental review process."

Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the Trump administration had spent the year pushing hard for these sales -- bragging that it would be done even though the process should require a more extensive review process.

Photo by Micah Baird

Trump administration political appointees also did their best to suppress serious concerns from career scientists on the impacts of drilling in this sensitive area.

Yet despite this outrageous attempt to suppress science, the Trump administration still hasn't found a way around the obvious fact that drilling in the refuge would be an environmental disaster. The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge teems with life -- polar bears, musk oxen, and more than 200 species of birds, as well as being the calving grounds of the Porcupine Caribou herd, which has sustained the Gwich’in Nation for millennia. The region is also an important symbol of the wild, and an emblem of the hope and peace of mind that can be found only in connecting with nature -- in knowing it exists. Drilling in the coastal plain would permanently destroy this sacred place.

In their rush to sell out the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the fossil fuel industry, Bernhardt and the Trump administration are disregarding Indigenous rights and public wishes (an April 2019 poll showed that two-thirds of US residents oppose Arctic Refuge drilling) and instead prioritizing oil and gas interests over people.

Photo by Micah Baird

While this week’s news is good, we know that this fight is not over. After their unpopular plans to authorize destructive seismic testing in the refuge were thwarted last winter, we know they’re going to try again to authorize the“incidental take” of polar bears -- a nice way of saying they want to allow seismic testing companies to drive heavy machinery through areas where mother bears and cubs den, which could crush the bears inside. Now that's something we know we never want to see happen. 

We know we can’t trust the Trump administration to do the right thing. We know they’ll keep pushing to hold a lease sale (and it could happen as early as next year), but that’s why we’re keeping the pressure up on oil companies and the banks that fund them to keep drills out of this place. Join us in keeping up the fight to protect the refuge!