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To: Department of the Interior Secretary Doug Burgum
Stop Trump’s Drilling Frenzy: Protect Our Coasts and Wilderness
In the span of just one month, the Trump administration has unleashed a sweeping assault on America’s protected lands and waters. They’ve opened Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and 13 million acres of northern Alaska wilderness to drilling. Now, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum wants to hand over 1 billion acres of our coastal waters, off California, Florida, and Alaska, to oil corporations.
We’re already in the midst of a climate crisis, and now this administration is pouring fuel on the fire. We’re calling on Secretary Burgum to reverse these catastrophic decisions. Stop the offshore drilling plans. Restore protections to Alaska’s wilderness. Our coasts cannot afford another oil spill disaster, and our climate cannot afford more drilling. Secretary Burgum and the Trump administration must choose our future over the profits of their oil industry donors.
Why is this important?
The areas Trump and Secretary Burgum want to open for drilling are some of the most ecologically vital and fragile places in America. Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve are home to irreplaceable wildlife like caribou, grizzly bears, migratory birds, and the already endangered polar bears who rely on this land to survive. These lands are also considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in communities who live near there. Opening these lands to industrial drilling threatens to destroy ecosystems and yield disastrous results for Alaska’s communities.
The offshore drilling plan is equally as devastating. The waters off California and Florida are home to endangered whales, sea turtles, and vital marine ecosystems. Millions of people in coastal communities depend on these waters and clean beaches for fishing, tourism, and their way of life. We’ve seen what happens when offshore drilling goes wrong. Oil spills cause catastrophic damage to marine life, are disastrous for coastal communities, and cost taxpayers billions of dollars.
This isn’t just about wildlife and the communities in Alaska, California, and Florida. This is about all of our futures. Every new oil and gas lease locks us into decades of more climate pollution at a time where we need to be rapidly reducing emissions. While other countries are phasing out coal, oil, and gas, the Trump administration is sprinting in the opposite direction. More drilling means more greenhouse gases, more extreme weather, and more devastating natural disasters that impact every American.
The only winners here are oil corporations and their shareholders. The Trump administration is selling our health and our futures to the highest bidder. Secretary Burgum must reverse these decisions now. Our lands, our waters, and our future are not for sale.