In another devastating blow to environmental conservation and Indigenous peoples’ rights, Trump announced he will open up the 1.6 million-acre coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas drilling.

Department of Interior Secretary David Bernhardt plans to approve the proposal, attempting to lock in leases while Trump is still in office so that Democrats won't be able to roll back the move.

This is an environmental nightmare! Even the Interior Department’s attempt to cover-up the dangers of drilling in the Arctic Refuge in their own environmental impact statement revealed that drilling could lead to extinctions. Drilling for petroleum and natural gas will also risk major oil spills in the wildlife refuge.

Additionally, drilling will directly and negatively impact the Indigenous Gwich'in people, who depend on caribou living within the proposed drilling site. The Gwich’in people have relied on the Arctic Refuge for thousands of years, for food, cultural and spiritual needs, describing the area as “the sacred place where life begins.”

This is yet another chapter in a long history of racial discrimination and the denial of Indigenous rights.

Trump’s plan to drill in the significant and environmentally fragile refuge will hasten climate change and have devastating consequences for Indigenous people, wildlife, and pristine public lands.

We stand in solidarity with the Gwich’in people and we stand for the preservation of the Arctic Refuge. We must demand Congress immediately step in and block any lease sales for drilling in the Arctic Refuge, before it’s too late!

Sign the petition: Demand Congress block Trump’s attempts to drill in the Arctic Refuge.