About the Energy Campaign

For eight years, the Bush Administration gave the oil and gas industry the keys to our public lands through a series of administrative decisions and a concerted “lease and drill everything” policy aimed at opening some of our most fragile, remarkable, and unprotected places to drilling.

A drilling boom has been in full gear for years. Contrary to their claims, the oil and gas industry has tremendous access to our lands.

Throughout the Rocky Mountain West, landscapes that once captured the imagery of America’s great frontier have been transformed in a massive land grab.  And many more places are on the oil industry’s wish list, from areas in Wyoming’s spectacular Bridger-Teton National Forest to more of Alaska’s coastal plains.

In Alaska, the Bush Administration offered the oil and gas industry more than 70 million acres in Alaska's Arctic.  Yet still, they demanded that the heart of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge be opened to drilling.  This would leave virtually the entire North Slope, including coastal and marine environments, vulnerable to oil and gas impacts.

The unique wildife, wilderness and cultural values of America's only Arctic are seriously at risk. The Wilderness Society is working to protect the very best examples of our Arctic Heritage--places like Teshekpuk Lake, the Chukchi Sea and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Our wild lands are being transformed. There’s no disputing it. Oil and gas development is harmful to the environment and wildlife that lives there. Communities are also affected when irresponsible drilling pollutes nearby air and water and locals lose ranching lands and tourism dollars.

The Wilderness Society believes that responsible energy development is an appropriate use of some public lands. But policies of recent years have opened our natural heritage to a land grab without bringing the nation closer to energy independence or providing Americans relief at the gas pump.

What The Wilderness Society is doing

We’re working to defend our public lands from needless sacrifice and to push clean, sustainable energy policies forward.

We do this by blending science, legal analysis, political outreach, constituency building and public education to:

• Build and engage in long-term efforts to ensure that ecologically important icons on public lands are appropriately  protected.
• Make recommendations about oil and gas development regulations.
• Campaign for legislation that pushes clean, sustainable energy policies forward.
• Build support for national legislation that will end the practice of giving oil and gas companies preferential treatment on public lands.

Through these methods, we believe we can help move the nation toward smarter energy policies that don’t require destroying the vast benefits our wild lands provide to all Americans.