April 25, 2024
Dear Representatives:
On behalf of our millions of members and supporters, the undersigned organizations write in strong opposition to H.R. 6285, the Alaska’s Right to Produce Act of 2023, and urge you to VOTE NO on passage. This extreme legislation would reverse several critical actions undertaken by the Biden-Harris Administration to protect the Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (the Refuge), 13 million acres of the Western Arctic and 125 million acres of the Arctic Ocean from indiscriminate oil drilling. The bill prioritizes resource extraction above all other uses of our public lands which are also sacred lands and cultural resources for Indigenous communities.
H.R. 6285 reinstates the 2020 Record of Decision for the Arctic Refuge Coastal Plain Leasing Program, requiring the administration to reissue the seven canceled leases which were found by the Department of the Interior to be unlawfully issued. The bill also waives all environmental safeguards and precludes all executive and judicial authority and oversight — mandating by legislative fiat the approval of all authorizations and permits required to proceed with drilling in the Refuge.
H.R. 6285 would also withdraw the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) proposed NPR-A Rule — a conservation effort that, when finalized, will help protect surface resources and the 13 million acres of designated “Special Areas” meant to be managed for conservation in the Western Arctic. Without additional protections, this pristine landscape will continue to industrialize rapidly, contributing to species loss, land degradation, and climate change. Worse, H.R. 6285 would prohibit the BLM from issuing any substantially similar rule in the future — forcing the BLM, and all future administrations, to succumb to a broken status quo that seeks to prioritize fossil fuel extraction in the Western Arctic over all else. This proposed rule is a long overdue, common-sense reform and is consistent with the directives in the law governing the Reserve, the Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act, which requires the Department of the Interior to protect “environmental, fish and wildlife, and historical or scenic values.”
H.R. 6285 also seeks to eliminate 125 million acres of existing protections from oil and gas leasing in the Chukchi, Bering, and Beaufort Seas created by President Obama and restored by President Biden (EO 13990) using Presidential authority under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. The Chukchi and Beaufort Seas provide vital habitat for a wide array of marine mammals, birds and fish, including the Pacific Walrus, polar bear, bowhead whale, ice seals and Steller’s eider. Both presidents provided these protections because of the catastrophic impacts an oil spill would have on fish, wildlife and subsistence in a frozen ocean environment where we have neither the infrastructure, technology, nor experience to contain and clean up such a spill.
H.R. 6285 would also have effects beyond oil and gas by revoking President Obama’s executive order creating the Northern Bering Sea Climate Resilience Area. That order, signed at the request of more than 70 Tribes, creates protections and processes for including Tribal voices in management for more than 100,000 square miles of ocean in northwestern Alaska. This highly productive ecosystem area supports one of the largest seasonal marine mammal migrations in the world, including thousands of bowhead and beluga whales, hundreds of thousands of walruses and ice seals, and millions of migratory birds.
For all of these reasons, we urge you to oppose H.R. 6285 and any amendments that erode protections for the Arctic.
Sincerely,
350 Bay Area Action
Accelerate Neighborhood Climate Action
Accountable.US
Alaska Wilderness League Action
Apex Protection Project
Arctic Audubon Society
Audubon Alaska
Azul
Braided River
Businesses for a Livable Climate
California Environmental Voters
Californians for Western Wilderness
Call to Action Colorado
Catholic Network US
Center for Biological Diversity
Center for the Blue Economy
Clean Water Action
Climate Crisis Policy
Climate Hawks Vote
Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks
Colorado Businesses for a Livable Climate
Community for Sustainable Energy
Conservation Colorado
Conservation Lands Foundation
Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship
CPAWS YUKON
Creation Justice Ministries
Defenders of Wildlife
Earthjustice
Endangered Species Coalition
Environment America
Environmental Action
Environmental Protection Information Center- EPIC
Franciscan Action Network
Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges
Friends of the Earth
Friends of Wisconsin Wolf and Wildlife
Gen-Z for Change
Great Lakes Wildlife Alliance
Great Old Broads for Wilderness
Greater New Orleans Housing Alliance
GreenLatinos
Green House Connection Center
Gwich’in Steering Committee
Healthy Ocean Coalition
Indivisible Ambassadors
Inland Ocean Coalition
Interfaith Power & Light
International Marine Mammal Project of Earth
Island Institute
Interstate 70 Citizens Advisory Group
KAO Consulting
Klamath Forest Alliance
Larimer Alliance for Health, Safety, & Environment
Latino Outdoors
League of Conservation Voters
Littleton Business Alliance
Mayfair Park Neighborhood Association
Mental Health & Inclusion Ministries
Mind’s Eye Productions
Montbello Neighborhood Improvement Association
Mystic Aquarium
National Ocean Protection Coalition
National Wildlife Federation
National Wildlife Refuge Association
Natural Resources Defense Council
Nature For All
NETWORK Lobby for Catholic Social Justice
Next 100 Coalition
Northeastern Minnesotans for Wilderness
Northern Alaska Environmental Center
North Range Concerned Citizens
Ocean Conservancy
Ocean Conservation Research
Ocean Defense Initiative
Oceana
Oceanic Preservation Society
Oil Change International
Oregon League of Conservation Voters
Our Sacred Earth
Partnership for the National Trails System Patagonia
Physicians for Social Responsibility
RapidShift Network
Save the Environmental Protection Agency
Sierra Club
Small Business Alliance
Soda Mountain Wilderness Council
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance
Southwest Organization for Sustainability
Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic (SILA)
Spirit of the Sun
Student Public Interest Research Groups (PIRGs)
Surfrider Foundation
Sustainable Ocean Alliance
System Change Not Climate Change
Taproot Earth
Texas Campaign for the Environment
The Earth Bill Network
The Episcopal Church
The Joy Trip Project
The Wilderness Society
Trustees for Alaska
Unite North Metro Denver
Wall of Women
Western Slope Businesses for a Livable Climate
Wilderness Watch
Womxn from the Mountain
Working for Racial Equity
World Wildlife Fund
Zero Hour