Trump Admin Finalizes Arctic Drilling: Because Profits Don't Understand Permafrost
The Trump administration, in its twilight hours, pushed through a plan to open the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. This, AP notes, fulfills a promise and comes after a 'massive GOP bill of tax breaks and spending cuts' enabled lease sales. What AP conveniently omits is that this isn't just a promise; it's a decades-long assault on one of the planet's most vital,
and vulnerable, ecosystems – a fight where the oil lobby, not 'debate,' has consistently driven policy. One might wonder if 'sensitive wilderness' suddenly became less sensitive when potential quarterly profits entered the equation. The 'debate' has been a one-sided steamroll for decades, with environmental warnings consistently outweighed by fossil fuel interests. How many scientific reports does
it take to understand 'wildlife refuge' isn't synonymous with 'future oil field'?