On this edition of Your Call's One Planet Series, we discuss theTrump administration’s decision to allow oil and gas leasing across the entire Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) coastal plain, a landscape that has been protected for more than four decades.
In Politico, Adam Federman writes that re-opening ANWR for drilling would almost certainly invite environmental groups and tribes opposed to the action to file legal complaints to stop it. It will also test oil companies’ desire to send rigs to a remote area that has long been a rallying cry for the environmental movement just as low crude prices are causing Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and others in the industry to lay off workers.
The Alaska Wilderness League says, “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."
Guest:
Adam Federman, reporting fellow with Type Investigations, and author of Fasting and Feasting: The Life of Visionary Food Writer Patience Gray
Resources:
Politico: Trump preparing to reopen Alaska wildlife refuge for oil drilling
Grist: Trump officials say Alaska is ‘open for business.’ So far, no one’s buying.
Alaska Wilderness Society: Senate Vote Shows Government Open for the Oil Industry, Closed for People
