Washington (September 16, 2024) - Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Subcommittee on Clean Air, Climate, and Nuclear Safety, and Congressman Jared Huffman (CA-02) led 53 of their colleagues today in a letter to Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and Tracy Stone-Manning, Director of the Bureau of Land Management, urging them to expand and provide new protections to additional areas of America’s Western Arctic. On July 12, 2024, the Department of the Interior issued a request for information as to whether or not additional areas of the 23.4-million-acre Western Arctic should be considered for protections.
The lawmakers wrote, “This opportunity to take a renewed look at needed protections is especially timely, as the effects of climate change in the Arctic—from declining sea ice, permafrost thaw, and record temperatures—are felt more acutely than ever before and new extractive development encroaches more and more into important habitat and subsistence areas.”
The lawmakers encouraged “meaningful partnerships and engagement with Tribes for any new or expanded areas” and safeguarding “unique ecosystems, sensitive habitats, and iconic species within the Western Arctic” using both “science and traditional knowledge-based approaches that include Tribal co-stewardship.”
Co-signers include Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), and Representatives Jasmine Crockett (TX-30), Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC), Nydia Velázquez (NY-07), Jerrold Nadler (NY-12), Barbara Lee (CA-12), Summer Lee (PA-12), Kevin Mullin (CA-15), Betty McCollum (MN-04), Alexandria Ocasio (NY-14), Adriano Espaillat (NY-13), Ro Khanna (CA-17), Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (CA-37), Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), Nanette Diaz Barragán (CA-44), Zoe Lofgren (CA-18), Raúl M. Grijalva (AZ-03), Frederica Wilson (FL-24), Mike Levin (CA-49), Robert Garcia (CA-42), Sean Casten (IL-06), Nikema Williams (GA-05), Maxwell Frost (FL-10), Cori Bush (MO-01), Darren Soto (FL-09), Chellie Pingree (ME-01), Jan Schakowsky (IL-09), Sara Jacobs (CA-51), Jim McGovern (MA-02), Andrea Salinas (OR-06), Jamie Raskin (MD-08), Mark DeSaulnier (CA-10), Linda Sánchez (CA-38), Alma Adams, Ph.D. (NC-12), Ilhan Omar (MN-05), Stephen Lynch (MA-08), David Trone (MD-06), Jill Tokuda (HI-02), Hank Johnson (GA-04), Ed Case (HI-01), Grace Napolitano (CA-31), Diana DeGette (CO-01), Steve Cohen (TN-09).
On October 26, 2023, Senators Markey and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) and Representative Huffman led their colleagues in a letter to President Joe Biden urging his administration to establish the strongest possible protections for America’s Arctic, following the President’s earlier decision to cancel unlawful Arctic leases and strengthen protections for Special Areas. In February 2023, Senators Markey, Cantwell, Heinrich, and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), along with Representatives Huffman and Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), reintroduced the Arctic Refuge Protection Act, bipartisan legislation to restore critical protections to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, by designating the Coastal Plain ecosystem as wilderness under the National Wilderness Preservation System. In March 2023, Senator Markey and Representative Grijalva led a letter to President Biden asking the administration to reject the Willow Master Development Plan, a massive oil and gas development proposal on public land in the Western Arctic. In December 2020, Representative Huffman and Senator Markey led 29 Senate and 79 House members in a letter opposing the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas lease sale scheduled for January 6, 2021.
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