NEWS & PUBLICATIONS

Administration Intends to Sacrifice Arctic Refuge to Fund National Parks

Washington, D.C. - "The Bush Administration is presently promoting its energy plan at public meetings across the nation, but its efforts are only compounding fears that the Administration will sacrifice the environment to energy-industry profits," said National Parks Conservation Association President Thomas Kiernan. "One sign of this was Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton's recent appearance before the House Resources Committee, during which she said that the President proposes to apply the federal share of revenues from oil development at the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to promote renewable energy technology and to improve national parks and public lands.

"The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) has been leading the charge to increase funding for national parks. NPCA has worked with the National Park Service through its Business Plan Initiative to put national parks on a sound financial footing. NPCA also has developed a program to win stronger funding for national park upkeep and protection. But we do not support any plan that involves diminishing the public's pristine wild lands, like the Arctic refuge, in order to fund parks.

"The idea of molesting the Arctic refuge to fund protection of national parks and other public lands is a cynical ploy advanced by the Administration to split the environmental community, but we aren't falling for it. If the Bush Administration persists in this approach to park protection, the "D" grade we recently gave the Administration for its national parks policies will slip even lower."