Virginia Cramer, virginia.cramer@sierraclub.org, 804-519-8449
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski last night introduced a bill that would effectively remove the sensitive coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from the refuge system, opening the entire 1.5 million acres to drilling. The bill ignores the importance of the area to the Gwich’in Nation, as well as a host of environmental safeguards, and cost realities that make raising the estimated revenue from drilling in the Arctic Refuge nearly impossible.
In response Athan Manuel, director of public lands protection for the Sierra Club issued the following statement.
“With the introduction of this bill, one more piece of the republican tax plan begins to fall into place-- and the picture forming is disturbing. To sacrifice the livelihood of the Gwich’in people and one our country’s last wild places in a sure-to-fail attempt to balance corporate polluter tax cuts is just wrong. We urge members of Congress to vote against this budget if it contains provisions that would open the Arctic Refuge to drilling.”
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