Sen. John Hickenlooper, D-Colo., has an important opportunity to show he stands with the values of his fellow Coloradans by supporting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The massive budget reconciliation process, currently working its way through Congress, is our best chance to reverse the oil and gas leasing program that threatens this unique place.
For more than 40 years the refuge has been a political battleground between those who would protect its remarkable wildlife habitat and cultural importance to the indigenous Gwich’in people, and others who value only its climate-changing hydrocarbon resources. To be clear, we're talking about a “wildlife refuge” here! Why is it that we’ve had to fight so hard and so long to make protecting wildlife an enduring priority in a wildlife refuge?
The refuge’s coastal plain, where drilling could occur, is a fragile ecosystem, well known for its epic caribou migrations. This landscape has become increasingly important to denning polar bears, whose population is threatened by melting sea ice.
I call on the senator to use the 2021 budget reconciliation bill as an opportunity to restore protections for the Arctic Refuge. This is no time to continue turning up the heat with dead-end hydrocarbon energy development.
Clint McKnight
Durango
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