The Trump administration is clambering to deliver on a final promise: to definitively open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, one of the most remote and ecologically pristine areas in North America, to oil and gas drilling –> https://sc.org/2UMdAKo
Trump in his final hours, just announced plans to sell the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to his fossil fuel cronies and campaign funders. This is our National Wildlife Refuge one of the most remote and ecologically pristine areas in North America and Trump is selling it to the highest bidder.
To make it hard for us to weigh in they are only accepting public comment via regular mail on the lease sale🙄 but since we are all social distancing and have plenty of time on our hands this isn’t that much to ask, is it. We need letters, 1000’s of them.
The deadline to receive letters is the 17th of December, but please mail it by the 10th to
State Director, BLM Alaska State Office
222West 7th Ave
Mail Stop 13
Anchorage, AK 99513-7504
Here is a sample letter. Use it, change it, make it your own, but send something!
RE: I am Against any and all lease or sale of oil or gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge!
Exploration and development of gas or oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will create a web of roads and pipelines and could harm the waterways, wildlife, the pristine delicate landscape of this precious unique country.
Encompassing more than 19 million acres, the Arctic Refuge is the largest national wildlife refuge in the United States. It has no roads or facilities. Tucked in the northeast corner of Alaska along the Beaufort Sea, its delicate arctic landscape provides breeding grounds for caribou, denning sites for polar bears, and habitat for migratory birds, among other ecological rarities.
Extracting these oil and gas deposits can result in lasting damage to the environment. Specifically, oil and gas exploration and development causes disruption of migratory pathways, degradation of important animal habitats, and oil spills—which can be devastating to the animals and humans who depend on these ecosystems.
What national interest could be so compelling to put all that at risk? America is setting records, with oil exports anticipated to overtake those of Russia and approaching those of Saudi Arabia. America is flush with oil.
Please protect this beautiful National Wildlife Refuge
Sincerely