The Nation - News from Jan. 25, 1989

Conservation leaders, including members of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation and the National Audobon Society, called on President Bush to reconsider the Ronald Reagan Administration’s proposal to open the environmentally sensitive Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development. The heads of the nation’s 12 largest environmental groups said the Bush Administration position on oil drilling on the Arctic coastal plain would be a major test of his campaign claim that he is an environmentalist. The issue also is expected to come up Thursday before the Senate committee considering Bush’s nomination of Manuel Lujan Jr. as Interior secretary. In anticipation of his confirmation, the groups delivered a formal petition to Lujan on Monday asking him to cease all actions that could lead to development in the refuge and to thoroughly re-evaluate an Interior Department study of the matter.