by The Biden administration is expected soon to move ahead with a massive oil drilling project in northern Alaska that is projected to create thousands of jobs and 600 million barrels of oil over its 30-year lifespan, according to multiple reports.
Senior administration officials signed off on three of five drilling sites proposed by oil company ConocoPhillips as part of the Willow project in the National Petroleum Reserve located in Alaska’s North Slope Borough, Bloomberg reported Friday night. ConocoPhillips previously said that for the project to remain financially viable, the federal government would need to approve at least three of the sites.
The Department of the Interior (DOI) will release the final decision on the Willow Project, but President Biden and senior White House officials have been actively involved in overseeing the approval process. Industry groups, Alaska lawmakers and local communities urged the president to approve the project for its economic benefits, while activists argued it would have devastating environmental effects.
“This Willow decision is a huge test for the Biden administration on so many issues that they claim to care about,” Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told Fox News Digital in an interview last week. “Of course it’s extremely important for Alaska, but it’s extremely important for America — a project of this magnitude when we need energy security.”
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Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland visits Granada, Colorado on February 19, 2022. (Hyoung Chang/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)
The expected final decision filing comes years after ConocoPhillips first proposed the project. The company is projected to produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil per day, create more than 2,500 construction jobs and 300 long-term jobs, and provide up to $17 billion in revenue for the federal government, Alaska and local communities . which are indigenous.
ConocoPhillips Alaska said last month that the project – which was initially approved by the Trump administration before a federal judge ordered the government to conduct a more rigorous environmental analysis – would “benefit local communities and strengthen American energy security.”
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In total, the project would involve the construction of up to 250 wells, multiple pipelines, a central processing plant, an airport and a gravel mine. Opponents of the project said Willow would harm the environment — as a result of both the construction and emissions generated by oil extraction — and produce an overall carbon footprint inconsistent with the Biden administration’s broader climate agenda.
“The Willow project is a climate disaster waiting to happen and will destroy our wildlife, lands, AK communities and climate,” the Sierra Club wrote Friday. “We need to accelerate our transition to clean energy, not double down on oil and gas.”
Climate activists demonstrate to urge President Biden to reject the Willow project at the Department of the Interior headquarters on November 17 in Washington, DC (Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Sunrise AU)
In addition to environmental groups, climate-focused Democratic lawmakers have similarly urged Biden not to give a favorable ruling on the project, also saying it would increase global emissions and offset the administration’s progress on climate change. It is estimated to produce 278 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of the carbon footprint of two million cars, over its 30-year lifetime.
“If this story is correct, it’s a complete betrayal of Biden’s promise not to allow more drilling and a complete disaster to unleash climate chaos,” tweeted Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., after the reports. the manufacture. “You can’t ask other countries to give up their fossil fuels if we continue to green light projects here in America.”
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Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, said in February that Willow is “the exact opposite of what the Biden administration is advocating.”
The project has also sparked a major opposition campaign on social media, with millions of users calling on Biden to block it.
As of Friday, two Change.org petitions urging Biden to “say no” to the Willow Project had received more than four million signatures. And the hashtag #StopWillow has gone viral on social media, garnering more than 650 million views across all platforms.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, and other members of his state’s congressional delegation have been staunch supporters of the Willow Project. (Al Drago-Pool/Getty Images)
But Sen. Sullivan and his fellow members of the state’s congressional delegation — Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola — have pushed aggressively for approval of a financially viable proposal for the project from the Biden administration in recent months. They argued it would provide a substantial boost for the state and local communities.
The delegation met with Biden at the White House for more than an hour on March 2 to reiterate their support for a fiscally viable endorsement.
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“The Willow Project has been one of my top priorities because it is so important to our future as a state,” Peltola said. “In the short term, this project will provide thousands of good-paying union jobs and help revitalize Alaska’s economy.”
“In the long term, revenue from Willow will pay for essential government services, such as public safety and investments in our education system.”
A lone oil barrel is pictured near the Kokalik River, which runs through the National Petroleum Reserve in northern Alaska. (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images) (Andrew Lichtenstein/Corbis via Getty Images)
The Willow Project has received support from Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy, Alaska Native communities, labor unions, North Slope Borough leaders and the Alaska Federation of Natives. The Alaska Legislature passed a unanimous bipartisan resolution in favor of the project.
On February 1, the DOI Bureau of Land Management (BLM) sub-agency released the supplemental environmental impact statement for the project. The analysis highlighted the large amount of emissions expected to be produced by the project, but showed that switching to foreign oil imports instead of the project’s output would result in an even larger carbon footprint.
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The BLM ultimately identified a preferred alternative of three drilling sites in the statement, but noted that a final decision could delay some of the sites.
Then, in an unusual move, DOI issued a statement that it had “substantial concerns about the Willow project and the preferred alternative as presented” in the environmental analysis shortly after it was released by the BLM.
The DOI did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
