Alaska Natives support Arctic drilling revival after Biden policy reversal

FIRST ON FOX: Democrats who sounded the alarm about the potential harm to Alaska communities if their efforts were reversed and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) was made more open to energy development received a response very different from what they might have expected from a consortium of local Native people.

Using the Congressional Review Act, the Senate voted Thursday evening to adopt a resolution from Rep. Nick Begich, R-Alaska, which officially overturned a Biden-era rule restricting more than a million acres to development in the refuge, where indigenous communities like Kaktovik reside.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., including spoke in the Senate against the effort, saying Congress rightly created the refuge in 1980 but neglected to properly protect the “very fragile ecosystem” from development, calling it America’s Serengeti.

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The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is visible in northern Alaska in an undated photo. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service/Getty Images)

“So far, we have been successful in protecting the coastal plain and keeping it intact, as it has been for millions of years, and many Americans hoped that we had moved on,” Cantwell said.

Using “the Congressional Review Act to break through the Arctic Wildlife Refuge (could) very well backfire on our drilling supporters. If Congress votes today to overturn Biden’s decision, it would create legal and regulatory chaos, not clarity. »

Additionally, several Democrats and at least one Republican supported a separate invoice in April, it would designate the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as a legally protected wilderness area, prohibiting any development whatsoever.

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“There are places that are too special, too amazing and too ecologically and culturally important to allow to be permanently despoiled by oil and gas,” said Jared Huffman, Democrat of California, a member of the House Natural Resources Committee. said at the time as main sponsor.

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., also led the bill’s introduction with Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, a Pennsylvania moderate from suburban Philadelphia.

Despite these claims that development would damage the land and harm those who live there, Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat (VOICE) – a group representing communities in and around the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, was pleased with the Senate’s reversal of the restrictive rule.

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“These joint congressional resolutions are a positive sign that congressional decision-makers support our self-determination in Iñupiaq,” VOICE President Nagruk Harcharek said in a statement obtained by Fox News Digital.

Harcharek said the vote reverses the trend after years of “unbalanced relations” with Congress and the executive branch.

Our “communities are cautiously optimistic for the people of Kaktovik following this vote – supported by our local and regional leaders – in our indigenous lands“.

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Kaktovik Mayor Nathan Gordon Jr. added that “Kaktovikmiut” – residents of the community – overwhelmingly support responsible development projects on their homelands because it offers them a great way to support themselves and their regional economy.

“Kaktovik is the only community within ANWR, but the federal government and Congress have ignored our voices for generations,” Gordon said.

A whaling captain who also attended a common occurrence in the region by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Energy Secretary Chris Wright also welcomed the news, crediting these officials for their efforts to engage with the Indigenous community on issues that impact their lands.

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“In the future, we hope to continue this positive relationship based on mutual respect with Congress and the executive branch,” said Charles CC Lampe.

In a statement after the vote, Begich noted that “America is stronger when Alaska is empowered to develop its resources responsibly.”

Senators Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, also expressed the importance of listening to the needs of their state’s residents rather than the assumptions of the bureaucracy.

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Murkowski said previous Democratic administrations “put everything on pause, illegally canceled each leasethen rewrote the program to ensure there would be no leasing or development.

“Their worldview was exactly upside down,” she said.

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“Today, we are poised to right this wrong, end the lawless blockade of ANWR, and create good-paying jobs and opportunity for Alaska’s working families,” Sullivan added.

Fox News Digital has contacted Cantwell, Markey, Huffman and Fitzpatrick for comment.