Raise Your Voice: Protect the Arctic Refuge by Writing a Letter to the Editor (LTE)

Photo Credit: Paxson Woelber

Writing a Letter to the Editor (LTE) for your local or regional newspaper is one of the most effective ways to share your message with a wide audience. With the current threats to our environment, this tool is more crucial than ever for organizing and advocacy. Opinion pages, where LTEs are published, are among the most widely read sections of newspapers and news websites. Even more importantly, members of Congress and their staff closely monitor these pages to gauge the concerns and priorities of their constituents.

Why Now?

Congress and the administration need to hear from people across the country about the risks of drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. By submitting an LTE, you can help spotlight this critical issue and show lawmakers that Americans are paying attention.

ACT TODAY: Write an LTE to make it clear that drilling in the Arctic Refuge is a financial failure and an environmental disaster. Let’s remind Congress that millions of Americans stand against this reckless plan.

The Truth About Arctic Refuge Drilling

In 2017, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was opened for oil and gas development as part of Trump’s Tax Act, under the guise of reducing the federal deficit. This legislation mandated two lease sales, initially projected to generate $2.2 billion. However, the first sale fell dramatically short, raising just 1% of the promised revenue. These unrealistic budget estimates have now been tested twice, and the results are undeniable: the American public was lied to.

A Step Forward: Recent Developments

There is good news. The Department of the Interior recently canceled the second lease sale for the Coastal Plain of the Arctic Refuge after it received no bids from oil and gas companies. This lack of interest highlights the overwhelming economic, environmental, and social risks of drilling in this iconic and ecologically sensitive region.

Kristen Miller, Executive Director of Alaska Wilderness League, put it best: “Today’s complete lack of bids is Déjà vu all over again. Congress’s push to drill in the Arctic Refuge is a losing strategy. The first lease sale was a resounding failure, and now the second hasn’t attracted a single bidder. It’s clear that the only people clinging to this nonsense plan are drilling proponents in Congress more interested in advancing self-serving rhetoric than protecting one of America’s most iconic wild places.”

Take Action: The World Is Watching

It’s time to put Congress on notice. Drilling in the Arctic Refuge is financially unnecessary, reckless, and opposed by millions of Americans.

Your voice matters. Write an LTE today to urge Congress to protect this irreplaceable landscape and ensure that future generations inherit a planet where such unique ecosystems still exist. Use our talking points and sample LTE below to get started, or craft your own letter infused with your passion and personal experiences. Together, we can make a difference.

Sample letters:

Option 1: Zero Bids, Zero Sense: Time to Protect the Arctic Refuge
Word Count: 188

The cancellation of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lease sale due to zero bids from oil and gas companies underscores a simple truth: Arctic drilling is a financial dead end.

Promised as a $2.2 billion economic boon under Trump’s 2017 Tax Act, Arctic leases have repeatedly failed, exposing a lie sold to Americans under the pretense of deficit reduction. Investors, companies, and the public are turning away from high-cost, high-risk projects like Arctic drilling. And Congress is stuck in the stone age, pushing a pro-drilling rhetoric that benefits no one.

Meanwhile, the climate crisis is hitting home for all of us. On this very day in California, wildfires fueled by record heat and drought are displacing families and destroying communities, while insurers withdraw coverage. Experts already expect the damage from recent fires to exceed $52 billion. Drilling in the Arctic exacerbates the crisis already at our doorsteps and just adds to our growing climate price tag.

Instead of clinging to outdated fossil fuel projects, we must prioritize investments in clean energy. Protecting the Arctic Refuge isn’t just about conservation—it’s about ensuring a thriving, resilient future for all.

Option 2: Moment of Truth: Time to Protect the Arctic Refuge
Word Count: 188

At the same day that in California, wildfires fueled by record heat and drought cause unimaginable damage, displacing thousands and destroying communities, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge lease sale was cancelled due to zero bids from oil and gas companies. This failure underscores a simple truth: Arctic drilling is a financial dead end.

Meanwhile, the climate crisis is hitting home for all of us. Experts already expect the damage from recent fires to exceed $52 billion. Drilling in the Arctic exacerbates the crisis already at our doorsteps and just adds to our growing climate price tag.

Additional background and talking points:
PLACES WE PROTECT: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge

• The Arctic Refuge is home to iconic species like polar bears and caribou. These habitats are irreplaceable.
• Drilling risks catastrophic oil spills in one of the most extreme environments on Earth.
• Companies are already struggling with melting permafrost in the Arctic—an ominous sign of the Arctic’s fragility.
• The target area for the lease sale is known as the "biological heart" of the Arctic Refuge, the Coastal Plain is critical for polar bears, and migratory birds, and serves as the calving grounds for the Porcupine Caribou Herd. It holds profound cultural significance for the Gwich’in people, who call it Iizhik Gwats'an Gwandaii Goodlit (The Sacred Place Where Life Begins.)
• The first Arctic Refuge lease sale in 2021 was a disaster, generating less than 1% of promised revenue. Major oil companies largely stayed away, and the few corporations that did show up to bid in the lease sale later chose to pay millions of dollars to exit their leases or had them revoked by the Biden administration.
• There is widespread opposition: Gwich’in Nation and Iñupiat allies, environmental organizations, and millions of Americans oppose drilling in the Arctic Refuge. The risks to culture, biodiversity, and the climate are far too great.
• The refuge’s 19.6 million acres are home to an abundance of wildlife—musk oxen, wolves, caribou, and polar bears—and are the summer breeding grounds for millions of birds that migrate here from six continents and all 50 states. Its lands and waterways are also vital to the Gwich’in and other local Indigenous communities who have relied on these rich ecosystems for millennia. The debate over what to do with this landscape has raged for nearly a century, but now, in the midst of a climate crisis that’s wreaking havoc at every latitude but warming the poles at astonishing rates, there’s broad consensus that drilling the Arctic for fossil fuels is beyond a terrible idea.

Follow these tips:

Respond to an article in the paper.
Follow the paper’s directions. The best letters are those that are in response to an article that ran in the paper, and many papers require that you reference the specific article. Begin your letter by citing the original story by name, date and author. Some papers do occasionally print LTEs because of a lack of coverage on a specific issue. If this is the case, begin your LTE by stating your concern that the paper hasn't focused on this important issue.
Share your expertise. Information on how and to whom to submit a letter-to-the-editor is usually found right on the letters page in your paper. Follow these guidelines to increase the likelihood that your letter will be printed.If you have relevant qualifications to the topic you're addressing, be sure to include that in your submission.
Refer to the legislator or corporation you are trying to influence by name. If your letter includes a legislator’s name, in almost all cases staff will give him or her the letter to read personally.
Write the letter in your own words. Editors want letters in their papers to be original. Feel free to use our messaging tips, but also take the time to write the letter in your own words.
Keep your letter short, focused and interesting. In general, letters should be under 200 words — often 150 or less is best. Stay focused on one (or, at the most, two) main point(s) and get to it in the first two sentences. If possible, include interesting facts, relevant personal experience, and any local connections to the issue that you may have.
Include your contact information. Be sure to include your name, address, and a daytime phone number. The paper will contact you before printing your letter.

Questions?

If you are interested in writing and submitting an LTE or have a question, contact Lois (at) AlaskaWild.org. If you send in an LTE, we'd love to hear about it so that we can keep an eye out for it. Or better yet, let us know when you get published!