All of the media did this. Most of the time they showed photos of the Brooks Range, which is wildly beautiful, but hundred of miles away and protected from any development. I once saw an ANWR story on the front page of the Slimes that featured a photo of Mt. McKinley!
You are correct, ANWR is featureless tundra and almost entirely empty. The drilling would be on a tiny percentage of the land and would not affect what little wildlife lives there.
This is the kind of story that proves libtards don’t care about facts, don’t care about energy, and don’t care to know anything when they think they have a good “narrative.”
The coastal plain of ANWR (where any drilling would be) is desolate, nearly devoid of plant and animal life, virtually never visited by any humans.... all in all, one of the most barren and unappealing places on earth. Any drilling would be in tiny tiny patches that could hardly be noticed by all the animals and humans that aren’t even there to notice. The liberals greatly expanded ANWR from the amount of land that was in the original plan, just as they often vastly over-promote “wilderness” and “national monuments” and such. Many of us are supportive of a core list of National Parks and wilderness protected areas, but the libtard econuts have greatly over-expanded this list and then try to make it all sacred. They try to pretend that the coastal plain of ANWR is as precious as Yosemite or Yellowstone. It’s not. That is a great big thumping LEFTIST LIE.