For Immediate Release – January 20, 2025
Fairbanks, AK – Today, President Trump signed an executive order that will once again threaten the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with oil and gas development. This action comes on the heels of a second failed lease sale in the Arctic Refuge which clearly demonstrated that even oil companies recognize what we have known all along: drilling in the Arctic Refuge is not worth the economic risk and liability that results from development on sacred lands without the consent of Indigenous Peoples.
The Gwich’in Nation is united against any development or destruction of the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge, and has been working tirelessly to protect it since 1988. And we know that we are not alone: the majority of Americans support protecting the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge; twenty-nine global banks now have a policy to decline underwriting oil and gas projects in the Refuge; and fourteen international insurers have also made such commitments, and the United Nations has three times sounded alarms about the harm and human rights violations to the Gwich’in from proposed oil and gas development in the sacred Coastal Plain.
“The Gwich’in people have stewarded the lands and waters that the Porcupine caribou herd rely on for millennia. Unfortunately, President Trump has made attacking these sacred lands a priority in his previous administration, and, unfortunately, it seems in his second,” said Kristen Moreland, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee. “Although we are disappointed in this backward step for our people, we will continue to fiercely defend the Coastal Plain from any threats from oil and gas development, period. The Gwich’in people stand in solidarity with all Alaska Native communities and our allies that are opposed to extractive and destructive industry on sacred land. We will fight this.”
###
For Media Inquiries:
Kristen Moreland, Executive Director, 907-328-9634
Genae Lako, 303-918-6290