The NRDC Action Fund today launched a six-figure ad campaign naming four Republican members of Congress who voted in December to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas drilling. The ads, which will run in both digital and print media, call out Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.), Rep. Ryan Costello (R-Pa.), Rep. Patrick Meehan (R-Pa.), and Rep. Erik Paulsen (R-Minn.) for their votes on the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which contained the Arctic drilling provision.
“Drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is reckless, and it will cause irreversible damage to one of the last best places on Earth,” said Kevin Curtis, executive director of the NRDC Action Fund. “With their votes, these representatives have handed oil companies a long-sought prize, but they’ve turned their backs on vulnerable Arctic wildlife and the indigenous communities who begged Congress not to spoil their sacred lands.”
“The devastating, climate-change-fueled storms, fires, droughts, and floods are already here,” Curtis added. “Voting for more climate-wrecking carbon pollution to pay for huge tax cuts for the wealthy saddles our kids with an unconscionable debt. Elected officials who voted for this tax scam will hear about it from their constituents this year.”
The NRDC Action Fund-sponsored ads hold Reps. Costello, Fitzpatrick, Meehan, and Paulsen, to account for opening the Arctic Refuge to drilling. The members represent suburban districts outside Philadelphia and Minneapolis-St. Paul.
In the weeks leading up to the bill’s passage, the NRDC Action Fund and other environmental organizations drove millions of supporters to speak out against the bill. Most Americans opposed the legislation.