Definitely agree that largely untouched parts of the wilderness should remain untouched but I think the bigger picture is more important to look at. If this is shut down the oil will just be drilled for somewhere else in the world, so we would just be moving the environmental impact from Alaska to somewhere else, likely the ocean or a developing nation. Drilling in the US has two major benefits: (1) Energy independence, which we’ve found out (thanks to Russia) is extremely important to have for price stability among other things; and (2) the US has much stricter environmental regulations surrounding oil drilling than other countries, so if this project is shut down, it’s likely that ConocoPhillips would just go out of country and make an even worse environmental impact.

Additionally, there are compromise discussions going on such that if this is approved, there would be a ban on drilling in the Arctic of the cost of Alaska and there would be greater protections for other habitats throughout Alaska.