David Voigts.

Part of President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act that is being considered by the Senate is a provision that would allow oil drilling in the fragile coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Drilling would jeopardize one of the world’s last unspoiled places at a time when we should be shifting to alternative clean energy to reduce the effects of global climate change (and help Iowa’s economy).

It is disappointing that both of Iowa’s Senators support opening the refuge to drilling. One of their reasons is that oil drilling would affect only about 2,000 acres of the coastal plain, but this is not correct. Activities would not be restricted to one block. Drilling and connecting infrastructure would extend to every corner of the refuge, impacting the entire coastal plain that has been called “America’s Serengeti” because of the large herds of caribou and other wildlife that use the area.

It has also been stated that new drilling techniques would lessen impacts. These techniques should be tried first in the parts of the nearby National Petroleum Reserve where oil drilling is already allowed to determine if they work before they are used in the fragile coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

A better approach would be to expand the development of alternative energy, of which Iowa is already a national leader. The best way to do this is to preserve the clean energy tax credits that were authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act but are under threat in Trump’s bill. Senators Grassley and Ernst are urged to support clean energy, which they have championed for a long time, instead of opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

David Voigts is a retired ecologist and the current Conservation Chair for the Prairie Rapids Audubon Society. He is a Tama County native, graduating from Dinsdale High School, and lives in rural Jesup on his wife’s family farm.