Reporting by CNN today reveals that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is pushing for a road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. The road would be the first constructed through a Wilderness area, and marks the latest in a long string of decisions by the Interior Department to roll back protections for wild places.
Rally against Trump's announcement of reductions to Bears Ears, Grand Staircase- Escalante National Monuments.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. House of Representatives today passed a bill undermining bedrock environmental safeguards protecting the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, as well as the Superior and Chippewa National Forests. The bill, HR 3905, would automatically grant mineral leases near the Wilderness boundary in perpetuity, while undermining guarantees for public process and water quality among others.
In response Lena Moffitt, senior director of Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign issued the following statement.
WASHINGTON, D.C.-- Today, Sierra Club joined Congressional and Gwich’in tribal leaders to decry the current attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling as part of the tax scheme. The effort would attempt to offsets tax cuts for the wealthy and corporate polluters with revenue from drilling in one of the country’s last wild places -- a move that the Senate Parliamentarian has said violates Senate rules.
WASHINGTON, DC -- The U.S. House of Representatives tonight passed a bill ordering public forest lands turned over to a private mining company. The bill, HR 3115, would expedite the exchange of National Forest land with PolyMet Mining Corporation for an open pit copper-nickel sulfide ore mine -- bypassing issues with the environmental analysis, value of the land appraisal, and ongoing public challenges.
In response Lena Moffitt, senior director of Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign issued the following statement.