US Senate Rejects Drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

Brooks Yeager, WWF-US Vice President, Global Threats, issued the following statement in response to the vote:

“Today’s win over the latest attempt to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling is a victory for wildlife and all Americans. Drilling proponents know they can’t win on a straight-up vote, so they again tried to sneak a victory through the legislative backdoor.

“This victory shows that Americans refused to be distracted by false claims that it is necessary to destroy our natural heritage in order to provide energy security. Even modest gains in energy efficiency would far exceed anything we could get from the Arctic refuge. Just raising the fuel efficiency standards for new vehicles by three mpg, for instance, would save more oil, in less than 10 years, than all the crude we could pump from the Arctic refuge.

“We are heartened by the fact that the Senate didn’t let drilling slip in through the back door and we’re confident that they’ll heed the public and make sure it doesn’t come back in any other way.”

The fight is not over yet however. WWF believes that drilling proponents will look for other legislative vehicles to authorize drilling. WWF is will continue to work for the designation of the coastal plain of the refuge as wilderness.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of America’s last unspoiled frontiers, and is home to large populations of caribou, moose, musk oxen, wolves, foxes, grizzly bears, and polar bears, along with loons, snow geese, and many other species of migratory birds.