- Trump Administration Rushes to Auction Off Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Drilling Rights Before Archived Message
Posted by sashimi
on November 18, 2020, 6:55 am
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- Biden Inauguration Obama prohibited drilling in the ANWR for the optics but allowed it in offshore Alaskan waters. By Brett Wilkins, November 16, 2020 (quote) In what critics are calling a parting gift to the fossil fuel industry, the Trump administration on Tuesday will ask oil and gas companies to choose which areas of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska - which is the sacred homeland of the Gwich'in Indigenous people - they would like to drill. ... The Republican-controlled Congress approved drilling in the massive, pristine ANWR in 2017. The reserve is home to the Gwich'in people, who call it "Iizhik Gwats'an Gwandaii Goodlit," or, "the sacred place where life begins." ANWR boasts some 270 species, including all of the world's remaining South Beaufort Sea polar bears, 250 musk oxen, Arctic foxes, and hundreds of thousands of snow geese and other birds which fly there from all 50 states and around the world. The Gwich'in rely on the region's rich biodiversity, especially its 200,000-strong porcupine caribou herd, for their survival. "What impacts the caribou, impacts the Gwich'in," Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, told Yes!. In addition to opening ANWR to oil and gas drilling, the Trump administration is also redefining what constitutes a "critical habitat" for endangered species, as well as when corporations are deemed liable for killing migrating birds. (/quote) -- Cont'd at https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/16/trump-administration-rushes-auction-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-drilling-rights |
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