House committee advances destructive pro-drilling bill
The coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is the calving ground of the Porcupine Caribou Herd.
Edward Bennett/Bennett Images LLC
WASHINGTON, DC (December 6, 2023) – The U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources today voted 24-17 to advance H.R. 6285, a bill that would mandate the federal government prioritize resource extraction over all else on federal lands in Alaska’s Arctic.
If the legislation were to become law, destructive and polluting oil and gas development would take priority over such things as public health, protection of wildlife habitats, subsistence, stewardship of sacred cultural resources, conservation and the climate.
In response to today's vote, The Wilderness Society released the following statement from its senior regional director for Alaska, Karlin Itchoak, who testified before the subcommittee last week in opposition to the legislation:
“This bill mandates that the federal government prioritize resource extraction over all else in the Arctic, which would violate the fundamental human rights of local Indigenous Alaskans who have lived on and stewarded these lands for millennia.
“It is a dangerous end-run around bedrock environmental laws and the authority of our executive and judicial branches to perform constitutionally distinct governmental functions, raising grave questions about separation of powers. America can do better, and Alaska deserves better.”
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The Wilderness Society is the leading conservation organization uniting people to care for America’s wild places. Founded in 1935, and now with more than one million members and supporters, The Wilderness Society has led the effort to permanently protect 111 million acres of wilderness and to ensure sound management of our shared national lands. www.wilderness.org.
