AFBF Supports ANWR Drilling

Earlier this week, the Trump Administration gave the formal go ahead to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling, a move backed by American Farme Bureau Federation. The move, authorized by a 2017 budget bill, caps a forty-year GOP effort opposed by environmentalists and some Alaska Natives, and will likely to go to court.

“Farm Bureau is supportive of domestic energy production, and certainly would support efforts to develop energy resources anywhere in the U.S., and that certainly includes the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, or ANWR,” said AFBF’s Ryan Yates.

Yates noted that agriculture is energy-intensive, and the more sources available to farmers, the better.

“To lower costs, and those inputs to lower costs for farmers that are already looking at very slim margins and trying to make a profit with what they have.”

Yates added alternative energy systems including wind, solar and biogas can all improve efficiency and cut costs and pollution, but take investment and time. Yates said opening up ANWR for gas and oil exploration is a win-win for the Ag community.

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