Sierra Club Statement on Interior’s Sellout of Western Arctic

WASHINGTON, D.C. -This week, the Trump administration finalized a plan to open up millions of acres of fragile landscapes in the Western Arctic to oil and gas drilling.

The Department of the Interior published a proposed rulein the Federal Register revoking protections for much of the Western Arctic. The final rule will be published on November 17. Totaling more than 23 million acres in size, the Western Arctic is the largest contiguous area of national public lands in the United States.

The Department first announced its proposal to vastly increase oil and gas drilling in the Alaskan landscape in June, limiting public input to a 60-day comment period on the plan.

Since retaking the White House, Donald Trump has consistently acted to give away public lands to corporate polluters and oil and gas firms. Multiple Day One executive orders rolled back protections to make it easier for oil and gas companies to drill on public lands. Trump's budget reconciliation law supercharged this pro-polluter giveaway, returning royalty rates oil and gas companies must pay for using public lands to levels originally set in the 1920s.

In response, Sierra Club Executive Director Loren Blackford released the following statement:

"One of Donald Trump's first acts post-shutdown is to serve the Western Arctic on a silver platter to Big Oil CEOs. Make no mistake, leasing out our public lands to private industry is a sell-off in everything but name. This has always been Trump's plan for our public lands - hand them over through sales, leases, and sweetheart deals that boost corporate bottom lines and sell out Americans' natural heritage. Time and time again, the American people have shown they will not stand for this kind of giveaway to corporate polluters, and Sierra Club will continue to stand up for these majestic landscapes and the communities and wildlife that rely on them."

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America's largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit https://www.sierraclub.org.