Washington, D.C. – In response to the Senate Budget Committee vote on the tax package incorporating plans to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, the League of Conservation Voters issued the following statement from Alex Taurel, Deputy Legislative Director: 

“The GOP tax scheme to help huge corporations and wealthy polluters is harmful in its own right, but destroying the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge by turning it into an oil field has no place in a tax debate. Members of Congress know that selling out one of our nation’s most iconic wild places to Big Oil is deeply unpopular, and that’s why they’re trying to push Arctic Refuge drilling through via a backdoor reconciliation process. The full Senate should reject this payout to polluters and the bill’s other corporate handouts.”