Drill, baby, drill? Sigh. Photo: National Wildlife Refuge
Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been approved as the site of oil and gas drilling by the Trump administration.
The move, which prompted widespread criticism, was announced on Thursday by the interior secretary. Over a million acres of ANWR’s coastal plains — home to countless animals like polar bears, caribou, whales and seals — will be open for business. It upends the Biden administration’s 2024 decision to increase the reserve’s federal protections.
It was also announced that permits have been issued to build the Ambler Road Project, a 211-mile gravel road through Alaska’s Izembek national wildlife refuge. According to The Guardian, “the road would endanger more than 200,000 migratory birds that cross through the refuge annually, among other wildlife, according to the National Wildlife Refuge Association. The project would also threaten multiple Indigenous tribes that rely on the area for hunting and fishing. At least 39 of Alaska’s interior villages and 37 tribes oppose the road.”
The road is being built to allow access to a copper deposit worth somewhere around $7 billion, not to mention the various other cobalt and zinc deposits also in the region.
“From day one, President Trump directed us to unlock Alaska’s energy and resource potential while honoring commitments to the state and local communities,” said Doug Burgum, the U.S. interior secretary “By reopening the coastal plain and advancing key infrastructure, we are strengthening energy independence, creating jobs and supporting Alaska’s communities while driving economic growth across the state.”
Environmental groups, however, are outraged at the proposals. The area is extraordinarily important, not only for research purposes, but for the sake of protecting wild lands from our relentless need for more of everything.
“The Arctic refuge is the crown jewel of our public lands system,” said the Alaska Wilderness League. “During a government shutdown, when everyday Americans are left without basic services, President Trump has chosen to double down on failed policies that prioritize oil corporations over people. Opening the entire coastal plain of the Arctic refuge to drilling would destroy one of the most ecologically significant landscapes on earth – the birthing grounds of the porcupine caribou herd, vital habitat for polar bears and migratory birds, and sacred land for the Gwich’in people who have stewarded its resources for millennia.”
It’s an already fragile ecosystem, made more fragile by our rapidly changing climate. “These decisions will collectively wreak havoc on fragile Alaska ecosystems in the most disruptive way possible, causing long-term environmental damage, all to boost the bottom lines of CEOs,” The Sierra Club wrote.