In the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Hulahula River cuts through the Brooks Range flowing north to the Arctic Ocean. Credit: Florian Schulz, protectthearctic.org
In the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the Hulahula River cuts through the Brooks Range flowing north to the Arctic Ocean. Credit: Florian Schulz, protectthearctic.org
Washington D.C– In response to the Department of the Interior issuing a call for nominations for new oil and gas leases on the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) released the following statement from Conservation Program Director America Fitzpatrick:
“After its last disastrous oil and gas lease sale in the Arctic Refuge received zero bids, Trump’s DOI is once again attempting to sell off more than one million acres of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge for oil and gas leasing. Not only is drilling in the Arctic Refuge not economically viable and reckless, it blatantly ignores the interests of the native Gwich’in people and hundreds of thousands of public comments opposing it. It would also destroy wildlife habitats and the sacred landscape of the Coastal Plain, all for the benefit of Big Polluters. DOI must stand with the people who have stewarded this land for a millennia and not move forward with this decision to advance destructive oil and gas drilling in the Arctic Refuge.”
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©2026 League of Conservation Voters