CNN discusses why it’s a bizarre time for Trump to open Alaska’s Arctic refuge up to oil drilling. The world is swimming in excess oil. Crude prices are weak. Oil companies are starving for cash. And climate change fears are palpable. It’s a bizarre time for the Trump administration to move forward with controversial plans to open Alaska’s pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge up to drilling. Interior Secretary David Bernhardt predicted Monday that the administration’s oil and gas leasing program in Alaska’s Coastal Plain could “create thousands of jobs” and mark a new chapter in American energy independence.
Bill McKibben, in The New Yorker, discusses how, in Alaska, Trump doubles down on environmental vandalism.
Rolling Stone discusses Trump’s ransacking of Alaska. Inside the fight to protect Bristol Bay and the Tongass National Forest — the biggest wild salmon run on Earth and the largest intact temperate rainforest on the planet.