House Republicans are investigating environmental groups over their efforts to stop a major oil and natural gas project in Alaska.
GOP leaders on the Natural Resources Committee said Friday that they sent letters to the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council, seeking a slew of internal records about their fights against the Willow Project, which President Joe Biden greenlit in 2023.
“The Committee is particularly concerned with [the Center for Biological Diversity’s] extensive history of lawfare, including ethically dubious sue and settle tactics, and CBD’s coordination with other activist environmental groups to not only champion a disdain for established essential multiple use principles, but also drown out the voices of native Alaskans while simultaneously undermining American energy independence,” Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chair Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and Rep. Nick Begich (R-Alaska) wrote in their letter to CBD dated Thursday, with similar language in other letters.
Each group, the lawmakers wrote, “appears determined to ignore Willow’s indispensability, undermine American energy security, and obstruct native Alaskan prosperity through its unscrupulous coordinated litigation tactics.”
