This destructive plan would sell off one of America's last great wildlands to the highest bidder, offering up almost the entire 1.5 million acre coastal plain for fossil fuels development, including huge expanses of federally designated critical habitat for polar bears, caribou, wolves, arctic foxes and many other wildlife species. Legislation seeking to open the area to oil and gas development had been defeated for decades as Americans and congressional mem bers have long recognized the value of preserving this area from development. In 2017, drilling was authorized under the pretext of generating revenue to offset the $1trillion cost of the "Tax Cuts and Jobs Act", circumventing full and fair congressional debate on the question. The coastal plain, where exploration and drilling would occur is the biological heart of the refuge. Fossil fuel development would destroy the wilderness character and wildlife values turning it into an industrial oilfield and threatening the species that depend on it. A pristine area would be turned into a man-made spiderweb of pipelines, airstrips, drill rigs, roads, gravel mines, buildings and other infrastructure. Fracking is what has made America the top oil producer in the world. Leave the refuge as pristine as it is now! There's nowhere like it in the US and very few places like it left in the world!