Speak Up Now for America’s Arctic

For decades, protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge from development was one thing many Republicans and Democrats in Washington could agree upon. One of the last truly wild places on Earth, the refuge is a stunning, unmatched wilderness where the Porcupine caribou calve in the spring, the Beaufort Sea polar bears den in the winter and prehistoric musk oxen roam. It’s the ancestral home of several thousand Gwich’in people, whose traditional life has been inextricably linked with this land and its wildlife for millennia.

The Arctic refuge is also a spectacular place to play. It is the kind of iconic and remote destination that drives the dreams of adventurers everywhere. And it’s a unique piece of America’s $887 billion outdoor recreation economy. It provides people from across the world the opportunity to explore and better understand nature’s vast and fragile beauty.

Now, President Trump and Republicans in Congress are trying to allow drilling in Alaska’s coastal plain, sneaking a provision into their tax bill filled with giveaways to millionaires, billionaires and big corporations.

Despite fervent opposition from the Gwich’in people (whose traditional homeland includes parts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) and a complete lack of evidence that drilling in the area will result in the windfall revenue that Republicans hope for, the Trump administration is pushing forward with its destructive drilling plans. Just last week, the administration signaled its enthusiasm to drill on Alaska’s north coast by taking a crucial first step toward approving the first-ever offshore oil and gas production facility in Alaska federal waters, not far from the refuge’s coastal plain, about 20 miles east of Prudhoe Bay.

Oil and gas development threatens to forever change and likely destroy this treasured place, which is sacred to the Gwich’in people and is a part of America and the world’s natural inheritance. Without protection, the subsistence way of life the Gwich’in lead will be irrevocably altered—and drilling could drive them off their sacred lands when the last of the Porcupine caribou disappear.

I have been to the coastal plain, I’ve seen the Porcupine caribou herd, and I’ve seen the coastal waters where the polar bears den. I’ve rafted the Hulahula River, and I’ve watched the tundra swan fly overhead. I can attest to just how incredible this region is. If we fail to protect it, we will fail our children and grandchildren. And we will fail the generations before us who fought to ensure that this place remains wild and undisturbed long into the future.

As my Uncle Mo Udall said when he led Congress in passing legislation to protect the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in 1980, “In each generation, we have carved up more and more of our once-great natural heritage. There ought to be a few places left in the world the way the Almighty made them.” We can’t stand idly by as politicians in Washington carve up America’s natural heritage and sell it off to the highest bidder. And we don’t have to—this fight is not over yet.

But we have to act fast. The U.S. Department of the Interior is currently considering an application for a practice known as “seismic exploration” in the Arctic refuge. When seismic exploration was last conducted in this tundra landscape three decades ago, it left scars you can still see today. In Congress I’ve introduced, with my colleagues, legislation to protect the Arctic as wilderness—the way it is today—and will join legislative efforts to repeal the drilling authorization that was slipped into the GOP tax plan.

It’s critical that we build support for this legislation across the country—so that members of Congress on both sides of the aisle hear from their constituents and appreciate what’s at stake in this fight.

I am proud to stand with the committed citizens across this nation who are ready to pull out all the stops to save the Arctic refuge—and to honor the Gwich’in people’s request to protect their homeland and their way of life. Americans fought off the robber barons 100 years ago to protect our public lands. Together we can do it again.