Sixteen AGs Filed Comments Criticizing Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Arctic Refuge Leasing Program

MARCH 13, 2019

Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey led a coalition of 16 state attorneys general in submitting comments criticizing the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed leasing program for oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. In their comments, the AGs argue that BLM fell short of its National Environmental Policy Act obligations by failing to make a full accounting of increased greenhouse gas emissions and potential climate change impacts associated with the Leasing Program. The AGs also noted that the administration’s revenue projections vastly overstate the plan’s potential economic benefits, while simultaneously ignoring the significant public and environmental costs of oil and gas development in the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge.