Dear NRDC Activist,

Financial risk. Irreparable environmental destruction. Devastating harm to wildlife. Threats to Indigenous communities. Public opposition.

This is what it means to drill in the fragile Arctic Refuge. But right now, the Trump administration is auctioning off the heart of this irreplaceable wildland to any oil company that wants to exploit it for dirty drilling.

WHAT’S HAPPENING
The administration and Congress opened up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 1.56-million-acre Coastal Plain for oil and gas drilling in April: Its lease sale is underway until June 3 for fossil fuel giants like ConocoPhillips, Shell, Repsol, and ExxonMobil to make potential bids.

This is happening after a massive oil rig — contracted by ConocoPhillips — collapsed in the Arctic’s North Slope earlier this year, spilling thousands of gallons of diesel and underscoring yet again the grave risks of drilling for oil in such harsh conditions.

The Trump administration, backed by oil and gas corporations, will stop at nothing to advance its “drill, baby, drill” agenda while our environment, wildlife, and communities pay the price for generations to come.

The CEOs of ConocoPhillips, Shell, Repsol, and ExxonMobil have made sustainability commitments to meet the U.S.’s energy demands while tackling climate change. But behind closed doors, it’s a different story. In March, these companies and other oil giants secured leases for over 1.3 million acres in the Western Arctic, even though many of these lands were recently being managed for protection given their incredibly high ecological value.

Tell oil and gas CEOs: Stand by your sustainability promises and stay out of the Arctic Refuge!

WHY IT MATTERS
This is the most recent attack from the Trump administration and Congress to auction off our public lands and waters for corporate polluter profits. Last month, Congress voted to remove protections for Minnesota’s Boundary Waters; now, New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon region is on the chopping block.

And the administration is clearing the way for fossil fuel companies to expand in the Arctic. ConocoPhillips’ already approved Willow project is just a few hundred miles to the west of the Arctic Refuge, which the company has signaled may be a foothold for more oil operations in the region, including expansive exploration activities that took place over this winter that were connected to the Willow site.

Oil companies don’t need to pillage the Arctic to keep driving record profits. Shell has raked in massive profits since the U.S.-Iran war started.

What’s more, banks and insurers aren’t backing oil operations in this fragile, remote environment. Lease sales are flopping in the region. The evidence is overwhelming: Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is a bad investment.

WHAT WE ARE DOING
For decades, NRDC and our partners have been fighting in and out of court for Arctic protections. We sued the Trump administration in January, challenging its destructive plan to auction off the Arctic Refuge for oil and gas drilling.

NRDC supporters have also sent hundreds of thousands of public comments over the last several years in defense of the Arctic. In the last few months alone, NRDC activists like you mounted a huge outcry opposing a Trump administration plan to drill in the Arctic Refuge and barraged the administration with public comments against its proposal to drill in the Beaufort Sea and Arctic coast that threatens polar bears and walruses.

And our partners at the NRDC Action Fund are supporting a slew of bills that would help protect our coasts from drilling, including in the Arctic. We will not stop now.

We need your help to keep up the massive public outcry opposing oil and gas corporations from drilling in the Arctic Refuge.

WHAT’S AT STAKE
The Arctic Refuge is a vital habitat for birthing caribou, polar bears, and migratory birds. The Gwich’in Nation relies on Arctic Refuge lands for their livelihoods.

More oil and gas drilling in the Arctic will only lock us into more fossil fuel addiction in an area that is warming more than four times faster than the rest of the world. Stopping drilling here is a key step to avert climate catastrophe.

Stand up for the Arctic and the life it supports: Send a loud and clear message to Big Oil CEOs not to drill in one of the planet’s last truly wild places.

Sincerely,

Bobby McEnaney
Director, Land Conservation, NRDC