Our fight to keep drilling out of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
On August 24, 2020, Alaska Wildlife Alliance and 12 other organizations joined together in a coalition to take the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to court for their illegal plan to open the entirety of the Coastal Plains of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to foreign oil companies. BLM’s decision violates the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, the National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act, the National Environmental Policy Act, the Wilderness Act, and the Endangered Species Act. Stopping these lease sales is essential to protecting Arctic wildlife already stressed by climate change.
To disrupt and fragment the Coastal Plain, especially in a time of climate change and surging local and national resistance, is both reckless and short-sighted.
- Nicole Schmitt, AWA’s Director
The Record of Decision by BLM is the final step in an agency environmental review process that puts politics before science and the law, and that threatens the land, water, wildlife, and people of Alaska’s Arctic. BLM’s decision follows the release of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) in September 2019, and illustrates the corruption, haste, and disregard for human rights and science that have defined this push for exploitation since day one. In the FEIS, BLM went so far as to deny that there is a climate crisis impacting our entire planet, especially Arctic communities. Traditional and Western science overwhelmingly agree that human-caused climate change is occurring, and that transitioning off fossil fuels is needed.
In the FEIS, BLM went so far as to deny that there is a climate crisis impacting our entire planet, especially Arctic communities | Polar bear family, Upsplash
To make matters worse, BLM has selected the most exploitative of the alternatives (none of which were sufficiently protective), allowing leasing across the entirety of the considered area, with minimal and waivable restrictions on construction only during a single month, a blatant dismissal of the Porcupine Caribou Herd and the Gwich'in and Inupiat people who depend on it.
BLM has selected the most exploitative of the alternatives | Snowy owl, Upsplash
This is the deceitful foundation on which the administration has built their policy. Protection of the coastal plain is an Indigenous issue, an environmental issue, and a global issue, and voices from around the world have spoken up against this rush towards exploitation. Click here to read the full coalition press release and the filed lawsuit.
We thank Trustees for Alaska for representing us and our allies in this important case!
If you want to help us protect Alaska’s wildlife, become a member today!
