Biden Approves Controversial Alaska Oil Drilling Project—Here’s What You Need To Know

Topline

The Biden Administration approved a multibillion-dollar oil drilling project in Alaska on Monday, known as the Willow project, a move that will appease Alaskan lawmakers while angering climate change activists and fellow Democrats who have warned the controversial project would have devastating environmental implications.

Key Facts

The Interior Department formally approved the ConocoPhillips oil drilling project following weeks of pressure both for and against the project, after the administration reportedly determined it couldn’t legally deny permits to ConocoPhillips for the project given they own leases on the land.

The project will include three drilling sites within Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, down from five sites that ConocoPhillips had initially proposed, the Interior Department said Monday, after previous reports suggested the White House was considering approving only two sites—which the oil company said would have been unacceptable and climate activists still opposed.

ConocoPhillips has said the project, which is priced between $8 and $10 billion, will generate $8.7 billion in royalties and tax revenues for federal and state governments and create nearly 3,000 jobs, and Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation has heavily urged the Biden Administration to approve the project.

The project is set to generate as many as 600 barrels of oil over the span of 30 years and release 280 million metric tons of carbon emissions—9 million metric tons per year—which the Times notes is the equivalent of an extra two million cars on the road each year, and the Guardian notes would cancel out all the emissions that renewable energy projects on public lands save by 2030.

The Willow project has drawn widespread criticism from climate change activists, with Al Gore saying it would be “recklessly irresponsible” to allow it to move forward and Earthjustice calling it a “carbon bomb,” and while some local Indigenous groups have approved of the plan because of its potential to provide jobs, others have spoken out against it because of its impact on natural resources and wildlife and the potential pollutants it will bring.

President Joe Biden will also draw the ire of fellow Democrats by approving the project, after nearly two dozen lawmakers urged him not to approve the contract, saying in a letter it “would pose a significant threat to U.S. progress on climate issues” and “be inconsistent with your Administration’s historic achievements on climate and environmental justice.”

Big Number

3.2 million. That’s the number of people who have signed a Change.org petition calling to stop the Willow project. Opposition to the drilling plan has gained widespread traction on social media, particularly TikTok, with the hashtag #stopwillow gaining 171.1 million views on TikTok as of Monday morning.

Tangent

Biden’s approval of the Willow project comes after his administration took steps Sunday to offset some of the impacts of it with new restrictions on oil drilling in Alaska, including barring offshore drilling in nearly 3 million acres in the Beaufort Sea and restricting drilling on 13 million acres within the National Petroleum Reserve. Environmental groups said the move was still not enough to counteract Willow being approved, however. “It’s insulting that Biden thinks this will change our minds about the Willow project,” Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, told the Times. “Protecting one area of the Arctic so you can destroy another doesn’t make sense, and it won’t help the people and wildlife who will be upended by the Willow project.”

What To Watch For

Environmental groups are expected to swiftly bring litigation against the Willow project now that it’s been approved, with CNN noting Earthjustice has already been preparing a lawsuit. The approval is also likely to spark protests, the Associated Press noted, and Biden risks turning off young voters who are passionate about climate change ahead of his anticipated 2024 reelection bid by approving the project.

Chief Critic

“The harmful effects of President Biden’s decision cannot be overstated,” Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said in a statement Monday after the drilling project was approved. “By allowing ConocoPhillips to move forward with this operation, he and his administration have made it almost impossible to achieve the climate goals they set for public lands … We will suffer the consequences of this for decades to come.”

Key Background

The Willow project was initially approved by the Trump Administration in October 2020, but the plan was stymied after a federal judge threw out the drilling permits in 2021, ruling the administration’s environmental review of the project was flawed. Biden’s expected approval of the drilling plan comes after the Democratic president has routinely spoken out about to climate change, calling it an “existential threat to our nation and to the world” and vowing in a July 2022 speech he would “do everything in my power to clean our air and water, protect our people’s health, to win the clean energy future.” The president signed major climate legislation into law in November with the Inflation Reduction Act, which is estimated to reduce emissions by 40% by 2030, and has signed numerous climate change-related executive orders, including new standards for auto emissions, creating a temporary climate office within the Department of State and improving land management for the nation’s forests.

Further Reading

Biden will approve Alaska oil project, alongside Arctic protections (Washington Post)

Administration to Approve Huge Alaska Oil Project on Monday, Two Officials Say (New York Times)

#StopWillow: How TikTok Users Are Mobilizing Against Proposed Alaska Oil Drilling Project (Forbes)