The only legislator in America to have been born and raised in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge told PJM he was “flabbergasted” by President Obama’s move to shut down oil and natural gas exploration and production in ANWR.
“I was floored by it,” Alaska Rep. Benjamin Nageak (D) said. “I wasn’t prepared to hear such a statement from the leader of the free world. I don’t think he knows exactly what he did.”
The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is the largest National Wildlife Refuge in the nation. It covers nearly 19.3 million acres of northeast Alaska, in what is known as the Alaska Northern Slope region.
The White House released a video [1] to explain the Obama administration’s thinking on why more than 12 million acres in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge had to be set aside as a federally protected wilderness area.