Fact-Checking America’s Arctic

Fact-Checking America’s Arctic

ECONOMICS: 

CLAIM: Companies want to develop the Arctic Refuge 

FACT: No company currently holds leases in the Arctic Refuge, even after a lease sale under President Trump under a leasing program that heavily favored development: Oil companies don’t want to drill here. The last oil and gas lease sale here generated less than 1% of revenue as predicted by the CBO. In fact, oil companies paid millions to get out of leases in the Refuge. 

CLAIM: Refuge drilling is economically viable

FACT: Banks don’t want to finance it because they know it’s not financially feasible. Almost every major bank and insurer is on the record saying they would not finance oil and gas development here. 

CLAIM: Drilling in the Arctic would impact inflation and ensure American energy independence. 

FACT: Development in the Arctic Refuge would take decades to complete and have no impact on current oil and gas prices. There is no existing infrastructure to even begin exploration here. Under President Biden, the US is producing and exporting more oil and gas than ever before.  

CLAIM: The Refuge has more oil and gas than Saudi Arabia 

FACT: USGS has said the Refuge’s oil potential is nowhere near Saudi Arabia’s capacity. Unlike Saudi Arabia, there is no easy way to drill for what oil may be there.

CLIMATE AND CONSERVATION: 

  • The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: This is the largest and wildest of America’s wildlife refuges. It is a critical habitat for polar bears, caribou, thousands of migratory birds, and critical sensitive permafrost ecosystems. Development here would permanently harm one of the last truly wild places on earth. 
  • Carbon mega bomb: Oil in the Arctic Refuge would account for 4.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide getting released into the atmosphere. Just the extraction process alone would add 26 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions to the atmosphere. 

 INDIGENOUS HUMAN RIGHTS: 

  • Caribou: The Porcupine caribou herd, who travel to the coastal plain each year, are a critical food source for the Gwich’in people who call the Arctic home. The coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge is the “Sacred Place Where Life Begins” and has supported their way of life for thousands of years. 

NATIONAL PERCEPTION: 

  • Protect it: The American people are strongly in support of protecting the Arctic from drilling.