--- title: Hillary Clinton Opposes Arctic Drilling description: Hillary Clinton said she opposes oil and gas drilling in the Arctic on Tuesday, a day after a federal agency gave Shell approval to drill. canonical: https://time.com/4002214/hillary-clinton-says-arctic-drilling/ author: Justin Worland article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-18T20:56:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-19T07:48:29.214Z article:section: Politics og:title: Clinton Says She Opposes Arctic Drilling in Break With Obama og:description: "Given what we know, it’s not worth the risk" og:url: https://time.com/4002214/hillary-clinton-says-arctic-drilling/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e1cb5a5aabcf736/69885fe33c16391ff9459530/hillary-clinton8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4000 og:image:height: 2250 og:image:alt: hillary clinton og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Clinton Says She Opposes Arctic Drilling in Break With Obama twitter:description: "Given what we know, it’s not worth the risk" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e1cb5a5aabcf736/69885fe33c16391ff9459530/hillary-clinton8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hillary Clinton Says She Opposes Arctic Drilling in Break With Obama > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters.  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 18, 2015 8:56 PM UTC  Hillary Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, pauses while speaking during the annual Democratic Wing Ding in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Aug. 14, 2015. Hillary Clinton, former U.S. secretary of state and 2016 Democratic presidential candidate, pauses while speaking during the annual Democratic Wing Ding in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Aug. 14, 2015. Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images  by [Justin Worland](https://time.com/author/justin-worland/)  ## Justin Worland Senior Correspondent Aug 18, 2015 8:56 PM UTC Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton declared her opposition to oil and gas drilling in the Arctic on Tuesday, a day after a federal agency gave Shell final approval to begin drilling there. The move marks a significant break with the Obama administration and an attempt by Clinton to bolster her environmental credentials. “The Arctic is a unique treasure,” Clinton [wrote on Twitter](https://twitter.com/HillaryClinton/status/633629814713397249). “Given what we know, it’s not worth the risk.” The [final approval](http://time.com/4000784/shell-arctic-drilling-plan-approval/) to begin drilling announced by the Department of the Interior yesterday clears Shell to drill into the Arctic ocean floor for the first time since 1991\. Advocates of drilling say that opening the Arctic will be a tremendous boon to domestic oil production. In total, official estimates suggest that the Arctic seafloor contains more than 25 billion barrels of oil. But environmentalists say that any drilling leaves a precious area vulnerable to devastating oil spills and increases reliance on oil, which in turn contributes to climate change. With this in mind, Clinton’s announcement drew quick praise and a sign of relief from environmental groups, many of which have remained skeptical of Clinton’s environmental bona fides due to her reluctance to criticize a Keystone XL pipeline. “We applaud Secretary Clinton for standing up for what science, the will of the American people and common sense demand,” said Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune in a statement. Clinton has made addressing climate change an early focus of her campaign. Last month, she proposed the installation of 500 million solar panels and called for the U.S. to produce 33% of the its electricity from renewable sources by 2027. “The reality of climate change is unforgiving no matter what the deniers say,” Clinton said at the time. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4002214/hillary-clinton-says-arctic-drilling/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4002214/hillary-clinton-says-arctic-drilling/"},"headline":"Hillary Clinton Says She Opposes Arctic Drilling in Break With Obama","datePublished":"2015-08-18T20:56:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-19T07:48:29.214Z","description":"\"Given what we know, it’s not worth the risk\"","url":"https://time.com/4002214/hillary-clinton-says-arctic-drilling/","keywords":["2016 Election","2016 Election","Environment"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e1cb5a5aabcf736/69885fe33c16391ff9459530/hillary-clinton8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Justin Worland","jobTitle":"Senior Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/justin-worland/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt4e1cb5a5aabcf736/69885fe33c16391ff9459530/hillary-clinton8.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hillary clinton","caption":"hillary clinton","creditText":"Andrew Harrer—Bloomberg/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/2016-election/","name":"2016 Election"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4002214/hillary-clinton-says-arctic-drilling/","name":"Hillary Clinton Says She Opposes Arctic Drilling in Break With Obama"}}]}] ```