As the United States prepares to assume the chair of the Arctic Council, the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee yesterday held a hearing on opportunities for the country to show leadership as an Arctic nation. The good news is some Senators, namely Maria Cantwell, Mazie Hirono, Al Franken and Bernie Sanders get it. They understand that climate change is damaging and melting America’s Arctic, and that new drilling for oil and gas will make that problem even worse.
The bad news is committee chair Lisa Murkowski doesn’t. Instead of focusing on climate--an area where the U.S. has real potential to bring about positive change-- the Senator from Alaska stayed frustratingly stuck on the idea of further development of dirty fuels in America’s Arctic. Senator Murkowski ignores the fact that, as Sen. Sanders said at the hearing, Alaska is ‘the canary in the coal mine when it comes to climate change.’
The Obama administration has already named addressing climate disruption as a top priority for its time at the helm of the Arctic Council, and science has made it increasingly clear that the Arctic is one of the places where dirty fuels must stay in the ground if global climate goals are to be met. In fact, a study published in the journal Nature found that all Arctic oil and gas must remain undeveloped to avoid the worst effects of climate disruption. Other data shows that development dirty fuels from the Arctic Ocean alone would release two-and-a-half times more pollution than would be saved by the administration's new fuel economy standards, threatening the climate progress already being made.
Despite this strong evidence supporting a shift in the way we view Alaskan resources, Senator Murkowski remains fixated on the false solutions offered by fossil fuels. Sacrificing some of our last wild places in order to "fill the pipeline" will not bring a better future for Alaskans. In fact, it will only prolong the state's dangerous dependence on fuel sources that are on the way out. Knee-jerk negative reactions to recommendations to protect some wild places from new drilling aren't productive; neither is the downplaying of the risks in the single-minded pursuit of expanded dirty fuel development. There are better, cleaner solutions available that are not only helping local communities today but also creating a promising future for our climate and our country.