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Here is how you can help protect America's Arctic today!

Congress is preparing to give the President and oil and gas corporations unchecked control of America’s Arctic

The House Natural Resources Committee recently released its proposed language for the budget reconciliation bill. The proposal guts protections for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and Special Areas in the Western Arctic Reserve (NPR-A), giving complete control of these public lands to oil and gas companies. It also mandates at least four lease sales in the Arctic Refuge over the next decade and lease sales on at least 4 million acres no less than every two years in the Western Arctic. Why? The same reason Congress is debating slashing programs like Social Security, Medicaid, and Medicare - so they can "afford" to fund massive tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy.

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 bill’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.

However, the most dangerous part of the bill is the attempt to strip any judicial oversight from development on our Arctic public lands.

The current language states that all permits required for Arctic oil and gas development permitted under this bill would be presumed to adhere to the law, and cannot be challenged in any court of law.

You read that correctly. The Trump administration and oil and gas companies would be given the benefit of the doubt that they will follow the rules, and - if this bill passes - there would be no way to challenge them in court if they don’t. This is a fundamental assault on the Judicial Branch and the power of citizens to hold our government and corporations accountable.

Permits for seismic testing that can harm polar bears? Can’t challenge them in court. Biological opinions on the environmental impact of drilling? Can’t challenge them in court. Right of way for new roads crisscrossing ancient migration routes? Can’t challenge them in court. Drilling permits for sensitive tundra where endangered species nest and where greenhouse gases are stored? Can’t challenge them in court.

This kind of overreach should concern every single American. We cannot let it stand, and we need your help!

Your voice is absolutely critical in this moment. Help us tell Congress it cannot simply throw out judicial oversight and rubber stamp extractive development in America's Arctic to help fund tax cuts for the wealthy.

Add your name to our letter to Congress below! We'll deliver it to the right offices at the right times as this bill makes its way through the House and Senate!

To my Elected Representatives and Senators of the United States Congress:

I am voicing my opposition to the House Natural Resources Committee’s proposed language for the budget reconciliation bill. The deregulation and fast-tracking of fossil fuel development on public lands in America’s Arctic is shortsighted and exploitive. The dismantling of judicial oversight for virtually all permitting and development processes is nothing short of catastrophic and undemocratic.

US citizens must have the right to hold both the government and corporations accountable when they do not abide by bedrock environmental laws and guidelines that are in place to safeguard our public lands, wildlife, subsistence, and local communities. Removing reasonable judicial oversight is a dangerous attack on our three equal and separate branches of government and consolidates power in the Executive Branch while removing legal recourse to challenge missteps.

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 for the Natural Resources Committee to raise $1 billion in revenue 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 the integrity of all three branches of our government, not a Budget Reconciliation bill that panders to corporate agendas while gutting judicial oversight of public lands.

Sincerely,

WHAT'S GOING ON? | The House Natural Resources Committee released its proposed language for the Budget Reconciliation Bill. Its impacts could be catastrophic for America's 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 House Natural Resources Committee is pushing to further expand and deregulate Arctic drilling as a way to purportedly raise money to fund Administration’s policy priorities in the Reconciliation Bill. 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. Additionally, the proposed language not only ramps up and deregulates oil and gas development in the Arctic Refuge and Western Arctic, it also removes any judicial oversight from the permitting requirements oil and gas companies must currently meet to drill in this ecologically sensitive region. The bill language literally says permits and other requests for authorization are “presumed to meet legal requirements” and removes any opportunity to challenge them in court if they don’t.

WHO IS DOING IT? | Currently, the House Natural Resources Committee

While this language started with the House Natural Resources Committee, it is currently making its way through the many steps a budget reconciliation bill goes through to become law.

It's critical that your Representatives and Senators hear from people like YOU during this process so they know their stance on America's Arctic, and on safeguarding judicial oversight in American politics, matters to the citizens they were elected to represent.

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 hights. 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 let Congress know their constituents are paying attention.

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.