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In a momentous decision yesterday, the Biden administration announced the cancellation of the last remaining oil and gas leases on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The announcement marked a significant victory for wildlife, the environment, and the Indigenous People who have tirelessly advocated for the conservation of this irreplaceable sanctuary.
The National Wildlife Refuge Association strongly supports the language released yesterday by the House of Representatives in their Build Back Better reconciliation bill that repeals the disastrous oil and gas development program on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. This bill also buys back the leases that were improperly sold in January to ensure they will be canceled. The language included in the bill would repeal the creation of the oil and gas program included in the 2017 Tax Act, repeal the addition of an oil and gas program as a “purpose of the refuge”, and buy back the leases sold in the last minute sale before the change of administrations.
On January 20, 2021, the United States of America swore in its new President, Joseph R. Biden, Jr, and its new Vice President, Kamala D. Harris. Along with the new Biden Administration, Vice President Harris also swore in three new Democratic Senators, flipping the upper chamber to Democratic control. Margins in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are razor-thin, meaning almost any legislation will require bipartisan support to pass.
Today, the Bureau of Land Management stated that they are going to hold a lease sale for oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on January 6, 2021. Ever since the creation of the Arctic Refuge 60 years ago, oil and gas companies have been lobbying for access to this protected land. This step to hold a lease sale is the formal opening of the Arctic Refuge for development for the first time in history.
Since taking office in January 2017, President Donald Trump has made environmental deregulation and habitat destruction one of the hallmarks of his presidency. From the clear-cutting of national wildilfe refuge lands along the US/Mexico border, to the opening of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil and gas development, to the support for expansion of the military even further into the Desert National Wildlife Refuge, we have seen a constant and unrelenting disregard for long-standing conservation principles.
This week is Polar Bear Week - a great way to celebrate this iconic, magnificent, and unfortunately threatened species. Prior to my current job as the President of the National Wildlife Refuge Association, I served as the Alaska Regional Director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As part of that job, I was appointed by both Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama as the United States Polar Bear Commissioner.
Just now, the House has voted 225-193 to pass H.R. 1146, to prohibit oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. We are thrilled that the House has acknowledged the importance of this landscape. We will continue the fight in the Senate and beyond to ensure that oil and gas drilling never happens in the Arctic Refuge.
The National Wildlife Refuge Association continues to counter an assault on Alaska’s 16 national wildlife refuges by the state’s powerful congressional delegation, now empowered by the Trump administration to undo 40 years of protection afforded Alaska’s refuges by the 1980 Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act
