Thanks to all of you who have signed the petition demanding that the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge be protected from oil drilling. We have some promising early momentum and hope to collect many more signatures in the weeks ahead. Don't forget to share the petition on Twitter (http://bit.ly/2z3WRXg) and Facebook (http://bit.ly/2z1kTCb). If you've been following along, you may know that Congressional Republicans are counting on $1 billion from the sale of ANWR drilling rights to help pay for proposed tax cuts. However, data from previous Arctic oil lease sales suggest that it won't generate anywhere near this amount of revenue--which makes it all the more senseless to jeopardize this pristine wilderness. Erik Milito of the American Petroleum Institute (that's right, you heard me) says that these resources "could be developed in an environmentally responsible way" -- but when has the petroleum industry ever showed us they care about the environment? And is that a chance we are willing to take in order to fill a budget hole created by a tax cut package? Again, it's short-term thinking with disastrous long-term consequences; we must break out of this paradigm! The Energy and National Resource Committee is expected to hold a hearing about drilling in ANWR on Thursday. There are strong voices on both sides of this debate right now, so it is important to remember that there is a real opportunity for our voices to make a difference. Let's keep the momentum going so we can make ourselves heard when the time is right! And please...take a look at some of the stunning photos of ANWR.