We’re jeering Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum’s harebrained announcement yesterday that he will open the entire 1.56 million acres of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas leasing. The Administration’s Arctic Refuge ruin agenda continues despite the fact that the last auction of oil and gas leases in January was a total bust—no companies were interested and there were no bids.

Rest assured we will be taking legal action if necessary to stop the exploitation of this precious ecosystem, which is home to 250 species of animals including polar, grizzly, and black bears, one of North America’s largest wildlife herds—the Porcupine caribou herd—muskox, artic foxes, beluga whales and over 200 species of migratory birds hailing from all 50 states.

Friends of Animals has been pushing back against the effort to drill in the region after the 2017 tax measure opened the Refuge to energy interests. Friends of Animals’ efforts to preserve the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have been ongoing for nearly a quarter century and will continue.

In the spring of 2001, FoA delivered a report to members of Congress detailing the ways in which oil drilling would cause irreversible damage to the refuge’s ecosystem and voicing our opposition to any legislation that would permit it.

That summer, we took an aerial tour of the refuge, flying over its snow-capped mountains, arctic tundra, foothills, wetlands, boreal forest and fragile coastal plains. We wanted to see for ourselves the over 1.5 million acres of truly pristine wilderness located along the coast of the Arctic Ocean.

The refuge is also home to four species protected by the Endangered Species Act.