STATEMENT: Senate Vote to Sell Out Arctic Refuge Is Dishonest Budgetary Scam, CAP’s Christy Goldfuss Says

Washington, D.C. — The Senate voted today to include language in the fiscal 2018 budget resolution that is intended to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. In response, Christy Goldfuss, vice president for Energy and Environment Policy at the Center for American Progress, issued the following statement:

The Senate’s vote to sell out the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil companies is a dishonest budgetary scam and a shameful broken promise to future generations. There’s no pot of gold under the Arctic Refuge that would even begin to pay the costs of President Donald Trump’s tax cuts for millionaires. More importantly, Americans overwhelmingly believe that the Arctic Refuge is and should remain America’s last great wilderness—a place that is dominated by polar bears and caribou, not sold off for drill rigs and pipelines.

Additional resources:

• “Arctic National Wildlife Refuge 101: Protecting America’s Last Great Wilderness from Being Sold Out for a Congressional Tax Scam,” by Matt Lee-Ashley and Jenny Rowland

For more information on this topic or to speak with an expert, contact Sam Hananel at [email protected] or 202.478.6327.