The proposed drilling legislation mandates that the first lease sale for oil development in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge be a minimum of 200,000 acres.

Click here to see the legislation:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c109:H.R.6: (select H.R. 6 EH, scroll to Section 2204(d))

That’s not a typo. In spite of a meaningless 2,000-acre “limitation” on development (see factsheet below for details) and persistent claims by drilling proponents to the contrary, the debate has never been about a 2,000-acre piece of land.

The House Resources Committee's Arctic Refuge drilling legislation would open the entire Coastal Plain of the Refuge to oil development and start the oil industry bidding with a lease sale of no less than 200,000 acres. According to Sec. 2202(1) of the legislation, we’re really talking about an area of over 1.5 million acres, in total.

Get the facts here about the “2,000-acre scam” and the so-called “2,000-acres limitation”:
Factsheet on the 2,000-acre hoax (PDF)