Title: Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act
Policy area: Public Lands and Natural Resources

Summary:
Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain Protection Act
This bill prohibits the Bureau of Land Management from administering an oil and gas leasing, development, production, and transportation program in and from the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5911 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5911

  To amend Public Law 115-97 (commonly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs 
Act) to repeal the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas program, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 22, 2018

Mr. Huffman (for himself, Mr. Grijalva, Mr. Gallego, Mr. Lowenthal, and 
Mr. McEachin) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                     Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To amend Public Law 115-97 (commonly known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs 
Act) to repeal the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas program, 
                        and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Arctic Cultural and Coastal Plain 
Protection Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Americans cherish the continued existence of expansive, 
        unspoiled wilderness ecosystems and wildlife found on their 
        public lands and feel a strong moral responsibility to protect 
        this wilderness heritage as an enduring resource to bequeath 
        undisturbed to future generations of Americans.
            (2) It is widely believed by ecologists, wildlife 
        scientists, public land specialists, and other experts that the 
        wilderness ecosystem centered around and dependent upon the 
        Arctic coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, 
        Alaska, represents the very epitome of a primeval wilderness 
        ecosystem and constitutes the greatest wilderness area and 
        diversity of wildlife habitats of its kind in the United 
        States.
            (3) President Dwight D. Eisenhower initiated protection of 
        the wilderness values of the Arctic coastal plain in 1960 when 
        he set aside 8,900,000 acres establishing the Arctic National 
        Wildlife Range expressly ``for the purpose of preserving unique 
        wildlife, wilderness and recreational values''.
            (4) When the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was 
        established in 1980 by paragraph (2) of section 303 of the 
        Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act (Public Law 96-
        487; 94 Stat. 90; 23 16 U.S.C. 668dd note), subparagraph (B) 
        recognized the following four additional purposes of the Arctic 
        National Wildlife Refuge:
                    (A) ``To conserve fish and wildlife populations and 
                habitats in their natural diversity including the 
                Porcupine caribou herd''.
                    (B) ``To fulfill the international treaty 
                obligations for the United States with respect to fish 
                and wildlife and their habitats''.
                    (C) ``To provide . . . the opportunity for 
                continued subsistence use by local residents''.
                    (D) ``To ensure . . . water quality and quantity 
                within the refuge''.
            (5) A majority of Americans have supported and continue to 
        support preserving and protecting the Arctic National Wildlife 
        Refuge, including the Arctic coastal plain, from any industrial 
        development and consider oil and gas exploration and 
        development in particular to be incompatible with the purposes 
        for which this incomparable wilderness ecosystem has been set 
        aside.
            (6) Canada has taken action to preserve those portions of 
        the wilderness ecosystem of the Arctic that exist on its side 
        of the international border and provides strong legal 
        protection for the habitat of the Porcupine caribou herd that 
        migrates annually through both countries to calve on the Arctic 
        coastal plain.
            (7) The Gwich'in people of eastern Alaska and Northwestern 
        Canada have relied on the Porcupine caribou herd for millennia 
        and caribou is a vital cultural, spiritual, and nutritional 
        resource for the Gwich'in.
            (8) The Arctic is being impacted by climate change at 
        unprecedented levels. Temperatures are rising at twice the rate 
        of the rest of the country, and wildlife and habitat that 
        depend on the Arctic are being detrimentally impacted.
            (9) Title II, section 20001 of Public Law 115-97 (commonly 
        known as the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act) would allow an oil and gas 
        program on the Coastal Plain. Oil and gas activities are not 
        compatible with the protection of this national treasure.
            (10) Repeal of section 20001 would best protect the 
        unspoiled ecosystem of the Coastal Plain, the human rights of 
        the Gwich'in, and the integrity of the National Wildlife Refuge 
        System.

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.

    The Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of the United 
States--
            (1) to honor the decades of bipartisan efforts that have 
        increasingly protected the great wilderness ecosystem of the 
        Arctic coastal plain;
            (2) to sustain this natural treasure for the current 
        generation of Americans;
            (3) to honor and respect the human rights of the Gwich'in; 
        and
            (4) to do everything possible to protect and preserve this 
        magnificent natural ecosystem so that it may be bequeathed in 
        its unspoiled natural condition to future generations of 
        Americans.

SEC. 4. REPEAL OF ARCTIC NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE OIL AND GAS PROGRAM.

    Section 20001 of Public Law 115-97 is hereby repealed.
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