Together with our coalition partners at Environmental Action, Environment America and Environment America Research & Policy Center have delivered more than 26,000 public comments in support of continued protections for “special areas” in the Western Arctic Reserve (or NPR-A).
The Western Arctic is 23 million acres total. 13 million of those acres have been identified as important for wildlife habitat and were set aside from drilling. The rest of the Reserve, approximatley 10 million acres, is available for oil leasing.
The Department of the Interior has proposed to strip protections from the wildlife habitat areas, opening up more land for drillig. Drilling and the roads and pollution that accompany it would be catastrophic for those areas.
The special areas should continue to be protected from development.
