Comment on Trump's budget renews debate on Arctic refuge oil drilling

Trump's budget renews debate on Arctic refuge oil drilling

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — President Donald Trump's plan to help balance the federal budget features a new attempt to open the coastal plain of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to petroleum drilling. The effort is the latest chapter in a long-running political fight between two camps: environmentalists, who revere the plain as a maternity ward for polar bears, caribou and migratory birds; and politicians, including those in Alaska's congressional delegation, who have campaigned for four decades on the promise of jobs and prosperity through "opening ANWR." [...] the environmental community and some Alaska Native groups want to keep it that way. Besides polar bears, the coastal plain is home to muskoxen, the nests of 200 species of migratory birds, and for part of the year, the vast Porcupine Caribou Herd — 197,000 animals that roam between the refuge and Canada's Yukon and Northwest Territories. Environmentalists say America should pivot toward renewable energy, not add to climate warming by burning oil extracted from wilderness and generating greenhouse gases. Murkowski has legislation pending that would open the refuge but limit oil company infrastructure, such as drilling pads and roads, to 3 square miles (8 square kilometers).

 

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