WHAT'S GOING ON? | America's Arctic and millions of acres of public land across Alaska are under assault, with President Trump pushing his "drill baby drill" agenda in one of the most biodiverse and sacred landscapes in America. But the economics just don't add up.
American taxpayers are already $2 BILLION in the hole on President Trump’s previous attempt to sell off the Arctic Refuge (ANWR) to the highest bidder. In Trump’s 2017 Tax Act - which gave nearly $2 Trillion in tax cuts to the country’s wealthiest individuals - Congress mandated two lease sales in the Arctic Refuge which they claimed would help taxpayers recoup $2 Billion of the massive hand-out in corporate welfare and billionaire tax cuts. Instead, the two lease sales have earned exactly $0, and the most recent lease sale - held in January 2025 - received ZERO bids.
President Trump has promised to “unlock” millions of gallons of “liquid gold” by fast-tracking fossil fuel development all across America. He took Day One action as president to upend Biden-era environmental impact assessments for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, and reinstate his First Term plans to ramp up extraction of Alaskan resources.
However, the president’s logic doesn’t hold up to the facts.
FIRST, while President Trump claims that increasing domestic energy is essential to our national security and independence from foreign imports, he is actively blocking clean energy projects (like clean offshore wind energy and solar energy infrastructure) while pushing fossil fuel extraction. The president’s bid to restrict renewable energy projects while fast-tracking fossil fuels makes clear this was never about his so-called National Energy Emergency.
SECOND, Trump has claimed that increasing domestic oil production is critical for struggling Americans who are hurting from global inflation. However, in reality, there isn’t a shortage of American-produced oil and gas to fill the void Trump describes. Gas prices are set by the global market. And there simply aren’t American oil and gas companies waiting around for President Trump to fire the starting pistol on domestic drilling. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. The US Energy Information Administration released a January forecast showing that American oil production is already outpacing demand. As an example, a recent Grist article highlighted that of 2,206 active drilling permits in the Gulf of Mexico, only a little over 100 are actually on-line and producing oil. Why? Because the oil companies holding those leases don’t need or want to spend money on existing permits just to flood the market with additional American oil. As Hugh Daigle, a professor of petroleum engineering at the University of Texas in Austin put it, “It’s not regulations that are getting in the way, it’s the economics.”
WHO IS DOING IT? | President Trump
President Trump has declared a National Energy Emergency, vowing to deregulate and fast-track fossil fuel extraction. The president’s hyperbolic narrative suggests that America is falling behind in a global race for crude oil that puts our nation - and the pocketbooks of Americans - in peril.
However, reality paints a very different picture. In fact, America already produces and exports more oil than any other nation in the world. Saudi Arabia, Russia, Venezuela… we beat them all when it comes to oil exports.
So why declare an energy emergency? Because declaring a national emergency gives the president increased powers to deregulate and fast-track permitting, ostensibly to quickly address a "shortfall" (which we've illustrated above doesn't exist). President Trump is tapping into Cold War-era presidential powers to circumvent lawmakers and help his friends and donors in Big Oil - an industry already hauling in record-breaking profits - spend less on environmental review and safety, and maximize their profits at the expense of taxpayers, the climate, and vital ecosystems.
WHY DOES IT MATTER? | America's Arctic is vital to Indigenous peoples, iconic wildlife, and global climate mitigation
FIRST, as explained above, the “crisis” is a false flag - a manufactured “emergency” with no factual basis. If President Trump is interested in the economics of America’s Arctic, he’d be better off protecting it. Why? Because the Arctic Refuge alone is worth more than $13 Billion annually in ecosystem services (the dollar value of the “work” the environment does to provide clean water, store climate-warming carbon, safeguard global food webs, and more). Instead, Americans are more than $2 billion in the hole and counting for fossil fuel leases in the Arctic that not a single major oil and gas company bothered to bid on. Drilling America’s Arctic is bad for the planet, and bad for taxpayers.
SECOND, the Arctic is warming 4x faster than the rest of the planet. A healthy Arctic stabilizes the jet stream, reducing extreme weather events like the recent fires in California and catastrophic storms in South Carolina. It's an enormous carbon sink for the entire planet, mitigating the worst impacts of climate change all around the globe. It is the ancestral homeland of Indigenous Peoples who depend upon access to clean water and unpolluted resources for traditional livelihoods and food security. And it is vital habitat for American wildlife like polar bears, bowhead whales, caribou, and wolves.
Watch the video below to learn more on how America's Arctic impacts everyone on Earth, and and explore the entire 5-part series of 1 minute videos for how the Arctic impacts global biodiversity, economies, climate and food webs.
OK! WHAT CAN I DO ABOUT IT? | Challenge yourself to form opinions that are supported by independent facts. Visit our Take Action page at any time for timely guidance on how you can help #ProtectTheArctic.
Right now, the best action for the public to take is to use the form above to let your elected officials and the Trump administration know you want a common sense approach to managing America’s Arctic. No false energy crisis. No more leaving taxpayers to foot the bill for billionaire tax cuts. No more handouts to Big Oil.
In the meantime, rest assured that numerous nonprofit organizations, Indigenoud groups, and conservation experts are working overtime to bring powerful litigation to our judicial system to challenge President Trump's agenda in America's Arctic and beyond. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, or TikTok to help us #ProtectTheArctic!
