Letter to President Biden - Rep. Huffman, Chair Grijalva, and Rep. Degette lead 60 members in urging President Biden support repeal of Arctic Refuge Drilling Program in Build Back Better Act

Letter

Dear Mr. President:

Thank you for your leadership and for helping Congress advance significant investments for the
American people through budget reconciliation. The Build Back Better Act is a generational
opportunity to make historic investments in federal programs and address the multiple crises facing
our nation in ways that create millions of good-paying jobs and put us on a path to net-zero
emissions by 2050.

Congressional committees are currently writing, debating, and voting on standalone pieces of
legislation that will be compiled into the final Build Back Better Act. On September 9, the House
Natural Resources Committee successfully advanced its portion of the Build Back Better Act,
which includes a provision that repeals the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas leasing
program and buys back the leases issued in January 2021 under the previous administration.

It's critical this provision be included in the final text that reaches your desk, and we ask for your
leadership and assistance in ensuring it remains in the Build Back Better Act as negotiations
between the House and Senate continue in the coming weeks.

For decades, Congressional Republicans made opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National
Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling one of their top energy priorities. The coastal plain is
considered the "biological heart" of the Arctic Refuge, providing important denning habitat for
polar bears and calving ground for caribou and hosting more than 200 species of migratory birds
each year. For the Gwich'in people, who do not live in the coastal plain but depend on the
Porcupine Caribou Herd for subsistence, the coastal plain is "the sacred place where life begins."
But despite its biological, environmental, and cultural significance, the oil and gas industry
peddled the idea to the public that the Refuge can fuel America's economy and fill our gas tanks.

In 2017, Congressional Republicans achieved their long-sought goal by attaching an Arctic Refuge
oil and gas provision to their Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which cleared the Senate through budget
reconciliation. The law directed the Department of the Interior to establish an oil and gas leasing
program for the Arctic Refuge and conduct two lease sales within the next decade. As part of the
2017 budget reconciliation process, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated that
opening the Arctic Refuge to drilling would raise $1.1 billion in federal revenues over ten years,
and Republicans used this score to offset a portion of their tax cuts for corporations and the superwealthy.

On January 6, 2021, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) conducted the first of two required
lease sales for the Arctic Refuge that generated just $12.1 million, half of which went to the federal
government -- a tiny fraction of the $1.1 billion promised in the Tax Act. This lease sale
demonstrated that the American people were deceived by Republicans in 2017 when they opened
the Arctic Refuge to pay for more than $1 billion in corporate tax cuts. Given its remote nature,
and combined with the growing global drive to limit carbon pollution, drilling in the coastal plain
is an unwise financial decision and an expensive and entirely unnecessary risk for U.S. taxpayers.
The financial risks are so clear that all major banks in the U.S. and Canada are among the two
dozen worldwide that have announced they will not fund any new oil and gas development in the
Refuge. The banks know it, and major oil companies know it: drilling in the Refuge doesn't make
financial sense and isn't worth the risks.

Nearly four years after the CBO estimated opening the Refuge to drilling would generate billions
of dollars for U.S. taxpayers, they recently informed Congress that the provision passed by the
House Natural Resources Committee would likely cost less than $50 million over the next decade.
Allowing more leasing and drilling in the Arctic Refuge to move forward is a terrible financial
investment for U.S. taxpayers, but spending tens of millions of dollars to protect this region is a
wise investment that would enormously benefit our nation.

The passage of this provision out of the Committee is a key step in our efforts to repeal the Arctic
Refuge oil and gas leasing program, and we ask for your support in guaranteeing it remains in the
final Build Back Better Act text that you sign into law. Thank you again for your continued
leadership through the reconciliation process, and we stand ready to work with you to protect both
the interests of U.S. taxpayers and our nation's precious public lands.

Source