TAKE ACTION

Take Action today to help stop the public land sell-off!

Don't let the government auction off America's Arctic! You can take two actions at once below to help protect the Arctic Refuge and Special Areas in the Western Arctic!

Add your name to our letter below! We'll deliver it to the Department of the Interior to oppose removing Special Areas in the Western Arctic AND to YOUR Representative to oppose giving away the Arctic Refuge in the 2025 budget bill.

To my Elected Representative of the United States Congress and the Secretary Doug Burgum:

I am voicing my opposition to the DOI's proposed removal of Special Area protections in the Western Arctic AND to the mandated oil and gas lease sales in the Arctic in the proposed budget reconciliation bill. The deregulation and fast-tracking of fossil fuel development on public lands in America’s Arctic is shortsighted and exploitive.

Lastly, the economics of further opening America’s Arctic to oil and gas development simply don’t add up. As the Trump administration guts energy efficiency standards and shuts down renewable energy programs, Americans are paying all-time-high prices for gas products while corporations rake in record-breaking profits. Meanwhile, oil and gas leasing in the Arctic has failed to raise any meaningful revenue for the federal government and, instead, has added $1 billion to the deficit. This is simply not an effective path to fund the Administration’s policy priorities.

Americans deserve a common-sense, economically sound energy strategy. This is not it. And Americans irrefutably deserve a Congress that will defend citizens, not a budget reconciliation bill that panders to corporate agendas while gutting our public lands.

Sincerely,

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America's Arctic is at risk of being sold off to the highest bidder. Arctic public lands are threatened by the current budget bill, while DOI is trying to remove Special Areas protections from the Western Arctic.

This is a real moment of crisis for American public lands in the Arctic. The current budget bill that has been passed by the Senate and now goes back to the House of Representatives would gut protections for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), and Western Arctic, mandating extensive leasing for resource extraction. Meanwhile, the DOI has announced its plans to strip Special Areas protections from the Western Arctic (NPR-A).

Why? The same reason the Administration is trying to slash programs like Medicaid, SNAP, and education grants - so they can "afford" to fund massive tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy and fast-track corporate interests.

But the numbers don’t add up. A recent congressionally mandated Arctic lease sale raised zero dollars and added $1 billion to the deficit. In addition, it can take up to a decade before new projects in the Arctic produce even a drop of oil. At that point, the vast majority of revenues from new Arctic oil projects required under this proposal wouldn't even go to the US Treasury. In fact, after 2035, the bill would create a new revenue split that sends 90% of all revenues from fossil fuel development on federal lands in America's Arctic to the State of Alaska.

The Administration's willful disregard for common-sense economics and pandering to Big Oil corporate donors is an all-out assault on one of America’s wildest and most fragile ecosystems - millions of acres of public land that impact every single person on Earth.

WHAT'S GOING ON? | America's Arctic is at risk in multiple ways - both in the current budget bill passed by the Senate and on its way back to the House of Representatives, and by the DOI's plan to rescind Special Areas protections in the Western Arctic.

American taxpayers are already $1 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 $1 billion of the massive handout 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.

Despite this record of economic failures, the Senate is now considering a bill that would further expand and deregulate Arctic drilling as a way to purportedly raise money to fund Administration’s policy priorities. Except if you look closely, they are actually directing 90% of any future revenues from new oil and gas drilling to the State of Alaska’s coffers, with just 10% flowing to benefit the country as a whole after 2035, which is when any new production facilities are likely to come on-line.

WHO IS DOING IT? | Currently, the House of Representatives and the Department of the Interior.

It's critical that your Representative AND the DOI hear from people like YOU so they know America's Arctic matters or citizens. With one signature, Protect The Arctic will deliver your message to BOTH your Representative and the DOI public comment period.

WHY DOES IT MATTER? | America's Arctic is too important to Planet Earth to be gifted to corporate interests with zero oversight.

FIRST, oil and gas profits are already at record highs. The administration's push to drill the American Arctic while derailing renewable energy projects and removing solar and wind power from federal energy programs is a blatant corporate handout at the expense of everyday Americans. Congress has a responsibility to ensure the government works FOR its citizens. Instead, it's actively trying to help the Executive Branch consolidate power and remove judicial oversight from one of the wealthiest and most polluting industries in the world.

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? | Add your name to the letter on our Take Action page and then help spread the word on social media.

In addition to signing your name to our letter, FOLLOW us on social media at @ProTheArctic and help spread the word. Help keep pressure on elected officials by continuing to directly email your electeds or leave a voicemail with their offices. Create your own stunning content with FREE Creator Toolkit and video library!