WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Trump Administration’s proposal to open vast swaths of the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska to energy development underscores how unbalanced and broken the Interior Department’s approach to land management is. The National Wildlife Federation called on the Department of Interior to reverse course and to fulfill its mission and stewardship responsibilities.

“Another day another critical ecosystem offered up for fire sale. Despite being originally protected as a national reserve for use during national security emergencies, the Trump Administration has proposed unfettered drilling in the vast majority of critical wildlife habitat of the National Petroleum Reserve. This is just the latest example of its reckless treatment of irreplaceable national treasures — like Bears Ears National Monument, the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, the headwaters of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness — as disposable resources to be exploited regardless of the devastation,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “This unbalanced approach threatens critical natural wonders and the wildlife who call them home. 

“Enough is enough. We urge the Administration to reverse course before these natural treasures, the birthright of every American, are lost forever.”