U.S. Democrats slam Arctic drilling plan as 'polar payout' to Big Oil

Democrats and environmental groups on Tuesdaydenounced a Republican plan to allow oil and gas drilling inAlaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, saying it would defile acrown jewel of U.S. wilderness to promote oil exports to China and other nations.

Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., called the plan a "massivecorporate handout to Big Oil" that amounted to a "polar payout"to finance tax cuts for the "super rich."

The Trump administration and congressional Republicans arepushing the drilling plan, a longtime GOP goal, as a way to help pay for proposed tax cuts promised by President Donald Trump. The drilling plan is included in a GOP budget proposal for the current fiscal year and is expected to generate an estimated $1 billion over 10 years.

Democrats scoffed at that claim, saying the plan would generate far lessrevenue at a time when oil production in the lower 48 states,especially Texas and North Dakota, is booming. Royal Dutch Shellabandoned an oil exploration program in the Arctic Ocean in 2015amid concerns that lower global oil prices made drilling in theremote region a risky investment.

'Sneak attack'

Sen. Maria Cantwell of Washington state, the senior Democrat onthe Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, called the GOPplan to open the refuge to oil drilling a "sneak attack" on thenation's wildest place. The remote, 19.6 million-acre refuge is hometo polar bears, caribou, snowy owls and other wildlife, includingmigrating birds from six continents.

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The refuge has been the focus of a political fight for more thanthree decades, as Republicans and the oil industry seek to open the area for drilling while Democrats and environmental groups and some Alaska Native tribes try to block it. President Bill Clinton vetoeda GOP plan to allow drilling in the refuge in 1995.

Protecting the Arctic refuge and its iconic polar bears hasbecome a rallying cry for generations of environmentalists.
Supporters dressed as polar bears and other animals at Tuesday'snews conference outside the Capitol.

The oil industry argues that allowing exploration and developmentin the U.S. Arctic would enhance national, economic and energy security, benefiting Alaskans and the nation while enhancing U.S. leadership in global energy markets.

Trump has vowed to achieve U.S."energy dominance," promoting virtually unfettered oil and gasproduction in U.S. lands and waters.

It could be years before any new drilling is actually proposed,although the Interior Department is moving forward with plans toconduct seismic studies to help determine where oil is located, a first step toward drilling.

Congress has sole authority to determine whether oil and gasdrilling can take place in the refuge.

Jamie Rappaport Clark, president of the Defenders of Wildlife, anenvironmental group, called the Alaska refuge "an incomparable wilderness" that supports more than 200 species of migratory birds in addition to its famous polar bears and caribou.

Trump and other Republicans "want to put our wild places out forbid," Clark said. "Enough is enough."

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