INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS • September24, 2020
Eighteen years ago, Sen. Susan Collins stood with eight other GOP senators to block President George W. Bush’s plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. But in 2017, she voted to open the pristine wilderness area to oil exploration as part of President Trump’s big tax cut bill. That vote began the unraveling of the environmental community’s longstanding support for Collins. Now, large membership groups like the League of Conservation Voters and the Sierra Club are lined up against Collins.