WASHINGTON – Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley released the following statement after the Obama Administration announced that they would seek to designate 12 million acres of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as formally protected wilderness area.
“The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is one of our country’s great treasures, and future generations deserve to inherit this amazing natural heritage untarnished. With the clean energy technology that is already within reach, we have it within our power to achieve energy independence using existing sources of clean energy. There is no good reason to allow drilling that will inflict irreversible damage on this unique place. This announcement is a great step forward.”
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