Claim: Critics gear up for response to lease sale in Arctic refuge.
Verdict: SUPPORTS

Retrieved passages:
title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: of the Porcupine caribou. In their documentary "Being Caribou" the Porcupine herd was followed in its yearly migration by author and wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer and filmmaker Leanne Allison to provide a broader understanding of what is at stake if the oil drilling should happen, and educating the public. In 2014, President Barack Obama proposed declaring an additional 5 million acres of the refuge as a wilderness area, which would put a total of of the refuge permanently off-limits to drilling or other development, including the coastal plain where oil exploration has been sought. In 2017, the Republican-controlled House and

title: Carlos Curbelo
text: I'm confident that we'll win — eventually." In December 2017, Curbelo and eleven other House Republicans signed a letter to Mitch McConnell urging the U.S. Senate "to pass a tax bill without oil-drilling concessions in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge." Curbelo voted in favor of the final bill, which "includes a provision, introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), that would require Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to approve at least two lease sales for drilling — each covering no less than 400,000 acres — in the refuge's coastal plain area." In April 2018, Curbelo called for the resignation of Administrator of

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: and gas development. It also proposed to trade the mineral rights of in the refuge for surface rights to owned by corporations of six Alaska native groups, including Aleuts, Eskimos and Tlingits. The report said that the oil and gas potentials of the coastal plain were needed for the country's economy and national security. Conservationists said that oil development would unnecessarily threaten the existence of the Porcupine caribou by cutting off the herd from calving areas. They also expressed concerns that oil operations would erode the fragile ecological systems that support wildlife on the tundra of the Arctic plain. The

title: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
text: the Arctic's diverse wildlife species preside. The usage of section 1002 in ANWR depends on the amount of oil worldwide. There are two sides of this debate: support for drilling and the opposition of drilling. Most of the supporters for drilling are big oil companies and political campaigners who sought to go after the resources that could be found in the refuge. The oppositions of drilling include people who currently reside in Alaska and people who want to preserve the wildlife and land for future considerations. In 1956, Olaus and Mardy Murie led an expedition to the Brooks Range in

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge because it would irreversibly damage a protected national wildlife refuge without creating sufficient oil supplies to meaningfully affect the global market price or have a discernible impact on U.S. energy security." Senator John McCain, while running for the 2008 Republican presidential nomination, said, "As far as ANWR is concerned, I don't want to drill in the Grand Canyon, and I don't want to drill in the Everglades. This is one of the most pristine and beautiful parts of the world." In 2008, the U.S. Department of Energy reported uncertainties about the USGS oil estimates

title: Reindeer
text: The leasing of Teshekpuk Lake land to industry was protested by the Iñupiat and others who sent 300,000 letters to the US Secretary of the Interior and the ConocoPhillips CEO over the summer of 2006. On September 25, 2006, the U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska protected the wildlife habitat around the lake from an oil and gas lease sale. In October 2017, U. S. Secretary of the Interior, Ryan Zinke, announced that as of December 6, 2017, lands under the administration of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management will be up for bid on the "largest offering

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: Area were to be evaluated from surface geological studies and seismic exploration surveys. No exploratory drilling was allowed. Results of these studies and recommendations for future management of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain were to be prepared in a report to Congress. In 1985, Chevron drilled a test bore on a private tract inside the border of ANWR. The well was capped. The results are a closely held secret. In November 1986, a draft report by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service recommended that all of the coastal plain within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge be opened for oil

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: legal and other actions necessary to "defend the community". The resolution also calls on all North Slope communities to oppose Shell owned offshore leases unrelated to the ANWR controversy until the company becomes more respectful of the people. Mayor Sonsalla says Shell has failed to work with the villagers on how the company would protect bowhead whales, which are part of Native culture, subsistence life, and diet. Moderate Republican House of Representatives member Carlos Curbelo and eleven others sent a letter to the Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, urging him to not include drilling in the December 2017 major tax

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: how best to protect the hundreds of millions of acres of Alaskan wilderness unaffected by the pipeline. On May 16, 1979, the United States House of Representatives approved a conservationist-backed bill that would have protected more than of Federal lands in Alaska, including the calving ground of the nation's largest caribou herd. Backed by President Jimmy Carter, and sponsored by Morris K. Udall and John B. Anderson, the bill would have prohibited all commercial activity in designated as wilderness areas. The U.S. Senate had opposed similar legislation in the past and filibusters were threatened. On December 2, 1980, Carter signed

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: contains . Although, only were thought to be within the proposed drilling region. "Environmentalists and most congressional Democrats have resisted drilling in the area because the required network of oil platforms, pipelines, roads and support facilities, not to mention the threat of foul spills, would play havoc on wildlife. The coastal plain, for example, is a calving home for some 129,000 caribou." The NRDC has said that drilling would not take place in a compact, space as proponents say, but would create "a spiderweb of industrial sprawl across the whole of the refuge's coastal plain, including drill sites, airports and

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: into law the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, which created more than of national parks, wildlife refuges and wilderness areas from Federal holdings in that state. The bill allowed drilling in ANWR, but not without the approval of Congress and the completion of an Environmental Impact Study (EIS). Both sides of the controversy announced they would attempt to change it in the next session of Congress. Section 1002 of the act stated that a comprehensive inventory of fish and wildlife resources would be conducted on of the Arctic Refuge coastal plain (1002 Area). Potential petroleum reserves in the 1002

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: claimed by Natives. Late that year Secretary of the interior Stewart Udall ordered the lease sale suspended, and shortly thereafter announced a 'freeze' on the disposition of all Federal land in Alaska, pending Congressional settlement of Native land claims. These claims were settled in 1971 by the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, which granted them . The act also froze development on federal lands pending a final selection of parks, monuments, and refuges. The law was set to expire in 1978. Toward the end of 1976, with the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System virtually complete, major conservation groups shifted their attention to

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy The question of whether to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been an ongoing political controversy in the United States since 1977. As of 2017, Republicans have attempted to allow drilling in ANWR almost fifty times, finally being successful with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. ANWR comprises of the north Alaskan coast. The land is situated between the Beaufort Sea to the north, Brooks Range to the south, and Prudhoe Bay to the west. It is the largest protected wilderness in the United States and

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: "estimates cannot be compared directly because different methods were used in preparing those parts of the 1987 Report to Congress". In the 2000s, the House of Representatives and Senate repeatedly voted on the status of the refuge. President George W. Bush pushed to perform exploratory drilling for crude oil and natural gas in and around the refuge. The House of Representatives voted in mid-2000 to allow drilling. In April 2002 the Senate rejected it. In 2001 "Time"s Douglas C. Waller said the Arctic Refuge drilling issue has been used by both Democrats and Republicans as a political device, especially through

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: rewrite, but the language remained in Senate passed bill. Rep. Curbelo still voted for the final bill that included drilling. Arctic Refuge drilling controversy The question of whether to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) has been an ongoing political controversy in the United States since 1977. As of 2017, Republicans have attempted to allow drilling in ANWR almost fifty times, finally being successful with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. ANWR comprises of the north Alaskan coast. The land is situated between the Beaufort Sea to the north, Brooks Range

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: was created by Congress under the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act of 1980. Section 1002 of that act deferred a decision on the management of oil and gas exploration and development of in the coastal plain, known as the "1002 area". The controversy surrounds drilling for oil in this subsection of ANWR. Much of the debate over whether to drill in the 1002 area of ANWR rests on the amount of economically recoverable oil, as it relates to world oil markets, weighed against the potential harm oil exploration might have upon the natural wildlife, in particular the calving ground

title: History of Alaska
text: and appellate litigation continues. Today, the tension between preservation and development is seen in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) drilling controversy. The question of whether to allow drilling for oil in ANWR has been a political football for every sitting American president since Jimmy Carter. Studies performed by the US Geological Survey have shown that the "1002 area" of ANWR, located just east of Prudhoe Bay, contains large deposits of crude oil. Traditionally, Alaskan residents, trade unions, and business interests have supported drilling in the refuge, while environmental groups and many within the Democratic Party have traditionally opposed it.

title: Don Young
text: rolled back Obama-era restrictions on Arctic oil drilling, Young commended Trump for "recognizing the importance of development in the Arctic OCS." The Arctic Refuge drilling controversy has repeatedly brought Young into the national spotlight. Young has been a longstanding supporter of opening lands within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil exploration. He has included provisions to that effect in 12 bills that have passed the House of Representatives, but environmentalists concerned with the impact of road-building, pipelines and other development on the Arctic tundra landscape have thus far successfully defeated such legislation in the Senate. On November 18, 2011,

title: Arctic Refuge drilling controversy
text: proposal faced stiff opposition in the House of Representatives. Morris Udall, chairman of the House Interior Committee, said he would reintroduce legislation to turn the entire coastal plain into a wilderness area, effectively giving the refuge permanent protection from development. On July 17, 1987, the United States and the Canadian government signed the "Agreement on the Conservation of the Porcupine Caribou Herd" a treaty designed to protect the species from damage to its habitat and migration routes. Canada has special interest in the region because its Ivvavik National Park and Vuntut National Park borders the refuge. The treaty required an

title: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
text: takes a lot of territory to keep this alive, a living wilderness, for scientific observation and for esthetic inspiration. The Far North is a fragile place." The region first became a federal protected area in 1960 by order of Fred Andrew Seaton, Secretary of the Interior under U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower. In 1980, Congress passed the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act. The bill was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on December 2, 1980. Eight million acres (32,000 km) of the refuge, the Mollie Beattie Wilderness, are designated as wilderness area. The expansion of the refuge in