BLM moves to strip protections from NPR-A conservation areas
Caribou in the Arctic Refuge
Georgia Bennett/Georgia Bennett LLC
Trump administration plans lease sale by the end of this year
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (June 25, 2020) – The federal Bureau of Land Management today released the final environmental impact statement for its planned revision of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska’s Integrated Activity Plan—another step in the Trump administration’s effort to strip designated “Special Areas” in the Western Arctic of conservation protections and open them to oil development.
In response, The Wilderness Society issued the following statement from Alaska Assistant Director David Krause:
“Though long expected, the final environmental impact statement is another sad and harmful development in this administration’s shameful race to destroy public lands by auctioning off wild, irreplaceable ecosystems for industrial development,” Krause said. “With a disregard for science and the climate reality the planet faces, this is no time to be dismantling conservation protections for fragile Arctic landscapes which wildlife and people depend.
“The Integrated Activity Plan dictates how the federal government will manage more than 23 million acres in the Western Arctic. The existing IAP was thoughtful and science-based,” Krause added. “And now, while a global oversupply of oil is holding down prices and forcing companies to reduce production, this administration wants to sell our public lands at bargain-basement prices for oil production the nation doesn’t need and shouldn’t burn. It is unconscionable.”
CONTACT: Tim Woody, (907) 223-2443, tim_woody@tws.org
