Federal Government Completes Plan to Sell Out Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to Big Oil

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) today issued a Record of Decision (ROD) finalizing the agency’s reckless plan to lease the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to the oil and gas industry. This destructive, unlawful plan would sell off one of America’s last great wildlands to the highest bidder, offering up almost the entire 1.5 million-acre coastal plain for fossil fuels development, including huge expanses of federally designated critical habitat essential to support denning for the threatened Southern Beaufort Sea (SBS) population of polar bears. The SBS population is the most imperiled polar bear population on the planet and has declined dramatically in recent years.

Jamie Rappaport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife, issued this statement:
“Today’s decision to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling is a low point for an administration characterized by its extreme anti-environment agenda. 

“Polar bears living in the Arctic refuge are threatened with extinction. Industrializing this area could be the death knell for this imperiled polar bear population. We will not back down in the fight to protect this irreplaceable landscape.”

Background
Arctic Refuge Drilling Threat 
•    In September 2019, the BLM issued a final environmental impact statement on its plan to establish an oil and gas leasing program in the Arctic Refuge coastal plain, with the goal of selling out these wildlands to the highest bidder before the end of the year. During the rushed planning process, reporting had repeatedly detailed the Department of the Interior’s efforts to suppress concerns raised by agency scientists concerning the impacts of the proposal on wildlife and habitat and the integrity of the review process. 
•    Legislation seeking to open the coastal plain to oil and gas development had been defeated for decades as Americans and congressional decisionmakers have long recognized the value of preserving the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from development. In December 2017, Congress authorized drilling in the refuge under the pretense of generating revenue to offset the $1 trillion cost of the “Tax Cuts and Jobs Act,” circumventing full and fair congressional debate on the question.
Risks of Oil Exploration and Development
•    The 1.6 million-acre coastal plain, where exploration, leasing and drilling would occur, is the biological heart of the refuge. Fossil fuel development would destroy the wilderness character and wildlife values of this vital landscape, turning it into an industrial oil field and threatening the species that depend on it.
•    The coastal plain is the traditional calving and rearing ground of the spectacular Porcupine caribou herd, which numbers nearly 200,000 animals. The indigenous Gwich’in people of northeastern Alaska and Canada have depended on the herd for their subsistence and cultural identity for millennia. The Gwich’in strongly oppose oil drilling in the coastal plain, an area they revere as “The sacred place where life begins” due to its importance to the caribou.
•    Approximately 77 percent of the coastal plain is designated critical habitat for threatened polar bears, which are increasingly coming ashore to den and raise their newborn cubs due to the climate-driven loss of sea ice.  The Southern Beaufort Sea population already numbers as few as 900 individuals, having suffered a 25-50 percent decline from previous estimates. 
•    Exploration that often precedes leasing could be devastating to denning polar bears. Seismic testing could frighten mother bears from their dens, leaving cubs to perish. The 90,000-pound “thumper trucks” used to explore for oil and gas could even run over dens, crushing bears to death and contributing further to the species’ decline. 
•    Industrial oil development would turn pristine habitat into a man-made spiderweb of pipelines, airstrips, drill rigs, roads, gravel mines, buildings and other infrastructure. Oil spills, leaks, and pollution could irreparably damage refuge ecosystems, upsetting ecological processes and imperiling the iconic and sensitive species that call this special place home.
Why We’re Fighting for the Arctic Refuge 
•    Located in northeast Alaska, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge comprises approximately 19.6 million acres of public lands and waters. It provides vital nesting habitat for hundreds of species of migratory birds from all 50 states and six continents; crucial onshore denning habitat for the most imperiled polar bears in the world; spawning streams for Dolly Varden trout and other valued fish species; and room to roam for caribou, wolves, muskoxen, Dall sheep, arctic foxes and many other wildlife species.
•    Much of the Arctic Refuge was first protected over half a century ago by the Eisenhower administration to preserve its unique wildlife, wilderness and recreational values. In 2015, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recommended Congress designate most of the coastal plain as wilderness.
•    Industrializing America’s most iconic national wildlife refuge is extremely controversial. According to 2019 polling, the majority of American voters oppose drilling in the refuge.