Jared Huffman: “I thank the gentleman for his restraint. One of the arguments my friend from Alaska invariably makes when we talk about…”

“I thank the gentleman for his restraint. One of the arguments my friend from Alaska invariably makes when we talk about this issue is the proposed drilling area is just a tiny little piece of a great big refuge in a great big State. And it is typically characterized as just a little 2,000-acre postage stamp. We need to dispel this very inaccurate and disingenuous characterization. It may be 2,000 acres of hard footprint, but it is not 2,000 acres of development all in one place. It is spread out across the coastal plain, which is the beating heart of America's largest wildlife refuge. And if you want to see what this footprint really looks like, it is not so tiny, folks. When you look at the hundreds of miles of roads and the gravel mining and the gravel pads and the oil rigs and other infrastructure that have to go in, it looks a lot differently than what has been characterized. So this picture depicts what the true footprint of this little postage stamp development in the Arctic refuge looks like. And I think by any fair measure, it would absolutely despoil the beating heart of America's largest wildlife refuge. Mr. Chair, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer), my friend and great champion of our public lands and of the Arctic refuge.”