Chair Grijalva Condemns Interior Department as Major Alaska Oil Drilling Project Nears Approval

Washington D.C. – Natural Resources Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) released the below statement following the publication of the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) final environmental review for ConocoPhillips’ Willow Master Development Plan in the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska (Reserve). 

“This massive oil and gas project in Alaska is a victory for Big Oil executives and the Trump administration’s political allies. This project will have disastrous impacts on the region’s air, water, and wildlife, local Alaska Native communities, and the climate. Beginning in 2017, this administration has sought to open as much public land to fossil fuel development as possible, and as Politico recently reported, in Alaska, these efforts have been led by a political insider who has disregarded science and stifled agency experts. BLM’s actions today undermine the protection of some of the Reserve’s most magnificent resources and allows for development to encroach on the Colville River and Teshekpuk Lake Special Areas. Making this terrible project worse is that it comes as the Arctic has experienced raging fires and one hundred degree temperatures this summer – clear evidence that our nation should transition away from fossil fuels, not hand more fragile tundra to oil and gas companies that consistently place profits above all else.”

Press Contact

Media Contact: Monica Sanchez

(202) 225-6065

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