Energy

Democrats Rail Against Drilling In ANWR After Complaining About High Gas Prices [VIDEO]

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Jason Hopkins Immigration and politics reporter
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Members of the Democratic Party have blamed President Donald Trump for rising gas prices while simultaneously attacking energy exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Heading into the midterm elections, Democrats have used rising gas prices as a campaign issue. In fact, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee released an attack ad in May, suggesting oil companies are getting rich from the GOP tax plan as they charge more at the pump.

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However, Senate Democrats are also attacking Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and the Trump administration for opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — a region in northern Alaska, more widely known as ANWR — to oil and gas exploration.

In a letters sent to Zinke on Friday, 30 Senate Democrats demanded action in ANWR be “in compliance with the law.”

“We strenuously opposed enactment of section 20001 and believe that oil and gas development on the Coastal Plain is fundamentally incompatible with the purposes for which the Refuge was established,” wrote ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Maria Cantwell and 29 of her Democratic colleagues.

“Drilling is fundamentally inconsistent with the purpose of the refuge,” said Cantwell in a Friday statement. “The Trump-Zinke scheme to convert the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge into an oilfield has been a sham process from the very beginning.”

In regard to energy production and gas prices, the Energy Information Administration released a study on Thursday finding that development in ANWR would boost U.S. crude oil production — albeit slowly.

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