Trump Administration Moves Forward With Plan to Allow Destructive Oil Exploration in the Arctic Refuge

Washington, DC -- The Trump administration is now officially considering a proposal to allow an oilfield services company to conduct destructive seismic exploration across nearly the entire coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Beginning as soon as December of this year, the testing would occur ahead of a planned lease sale for drilling in the coastal plain.

One of the world’s last intact ecosystems, the Arctic Refuge is one of the few places in the United States that has never been developed or inhabited. There are no roads, homes, or permanent structures of any kind there. Seismic exploration in the coastal plain -- considered the biological heart of the Arctic Refuge -- would bring industrial vehicles and equipment to this sensitive and pristine area, threatening wildlife and leaving permanent scars on the landscape.

Efforts to open the coastal plain for drilling have prompted enormous public resistance. Hundreds turned out to protest the Department of the Interior’s public hearings on the plan, and hundreds of thousands more submitted comments opposing drilling because of threats to one of the world’s last truly wild places, as well as the human rights of the Gwich’in Nation, who have lived in the region for thousands of years and rely on the wildlife there for their food security.

Legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives this spring that would block drilling in the Arctic Refuge. And some of the world’s most significant institutional investors have also raised concerns about the economic risks associated with Arctic drilling and urged companies and financial institutions not to invest there.

In response, Lena Moffitt, Senior Director of the Sierra Club’s Our Wild America campaign, released the following statement:

“Across the country in public hearings, in corporate boardrooms, and on Capitol Hill, the American people are sending a clear message that drilling in the Arctic Refuge is far from a sure thing. Allowing destructive seismic testing in the Arctic Refuge would do severe and permanent damage to this sensitive wilderness before a single drill rig has even been permitted. We will continue to stand with the Gwich’in in defending the Arctic Refuge, and we will explore all legal avenues to ensure that oil exploration never happens in this sacred place.”