How TikTok Users Are Mobilizing Against Proposed Alaska Oil Drilling Project

Topline

Social media users have rallied against a proposed oil drilling project in northern Alaska over the past week, using the #stopwillow TikTok hashtag to educate viewers on the project’s potential environmental consequences and urge them to sign petitions pushing the Biden Administration to reject the project.

An exploratory drilling camp at the proposed site of the Willow Project in Alaska. (ConocoPhillips … [+] via AP, File)

Associated Press

Key Facts

The ConocoPhillips Willow Project has sparked backlash from climate activists on TikTok who fear a negative impact on the environment.

According to the Interior Department’s estimates, the oil drilling project would produce 629 million barrels of oil over a 30-year period—but burning that oil would release about 278 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, a cause linked to global warming.

The TikTok hashtags #stopwillow and #stopthewillowproject each have about 150 million views, primarily consisting of videos created by young activists discussing the drilling project’s potential harms and criticizing President Joe Biden for seeming to renege on his promise to halt all new oil drilling on federal land.

Some #stopwillow TikToks resemble political advertisements: A popular video, with more than 5 million views in under one week, warned the project would generate carbon dioxide emissions and threaten Alaska’s wildlife.

In other videos, TikTok climate activists speak directly to the camera: Nessa May, who posts about climate and lifestyle topics, uploaded a video this week of herself calling the White House comment line to voice her disappointment with Biden’s consideration of the project, citing the negative impact it may have on Alaska’s Indigenous communities and the climate.

Some videos have leaned into popular TikTok audios and trends, satirically criticizing Biden directly: Several used a popular audio from The Walking Dead (“You said that you would turn on your radio every day at dawn, and you were not there”) to criticize the president for campaigning on curbing climate change and oil drilling but potentially greenlighting the Willow project.

One strategy creators have employed to get viewers to stop and watch their Willow Project videos is by starting the video on an unrelated topic—like one that begins by saying it has updates on the Selena Gomez and Hailey Bieber internet drama, or another that advertises a new Roblox glitch—before quickly transitioning to an informational video about the Willow Project.

TikTok accounts dedicated to the #stopwillow cause are popping up, like @stopwillowproject2023, which has uploaded 13 videos over the past week urging viewers to voice opposition to the project, including one with 1.6 million views.

Many videos are urging #stopwillow supporters to sign several petitions circulating on Change.org urging the Biden Administration to oppose the Willow Project.

Big Number

3 million. That’s how many signatures the most popular Change.org petition opposing the Willow Project has. The petition states the project would “lock us into decades of fossil fuel development at a time when we need to be rapidly transitioning to clean energy sources” and cites the damage it may have on the Nuiqsut Alaska Native village. Another Change.org petition with the same goal has nearly 900,000 signatures.

What To Watch For

Whether the Biden Administration will proceed with the Willow Project or a scaled-down version, or if it will forego drilling altogether. A decision could reportedly be announced as soon as this week. Environmental groups like Earthjustice have urged Biden to reject the project, arguing in a statement last month, “it’s not too late for him to step up and pull the plug on this carbon bomb.”

Key Background

The Willow Project, first announced by ConocoPhillips in 2018, is a $6 billion oil drilling project on federal land that proponents say will bring jobs and revenue to Alaska while reducing the United States’s dependence on foreign oil. The project has enjoyed bipartisan support from Alaskan lawmakers and has been aggressively pushed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R), who told CNN last summer she’s brought up Willow in every recent conversation she’s had with the White House. But the proposal has been fervently opposed by environmental activists who fear the impact its carbon emissions may have on the climate, and who view it as a step backward in the push for clean energy. The project has faced pushback from Alaska Natives, particularly residents of the small Nuiqsut village, who say they will bear the brunt of the project’s health and environmental impacts. Some Alaska Native groups, however, voiced support for the project because it would bring revenue to the area. The Biden Administration has reportedly considered making concessions to reduce the scope of the project, such as by reducing the number of drilling pads from three to two (which is already down from ConocoPhillips’s original proposal of five). Controversy has persisted for decades over whether to drill in remote areas like the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (though the Willow Project would not take place in this area) for fear that drilling projects would threaten the local environment and wildlife and contribute to climate change.

Tangent

Some Willow Project opponents have invoked Biden’s campaign promises. While campaigning for the presidency, Biden vowed to ban “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters” as part of his climate agenda. A Louisiana judge blocked Biden’s order to pause new oil and gas leases on federal land in June 2021, though this was struck down by a higher court in August 2022.

Chief Critic

Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan (R) invoked the #stopwillow movement in a news conference Tuesday about federal efforts to restrict or ban foreign technologies like TikTok, which is owned by Chinese company ByteDance. The lawmaker said the sudden popularity of the #stopwillow hashtag may be “the Chinese Communist Party trying to influence young Americans on an issue” because they’re “scared to death of American energy dominance.”

Crucial Quote

“I’m out here screaming in the woods because we have less than a week to stop Willow, which is a proposed oil drilling project in Alaska that would put an already fragile ecosystem and the Indigenous communities that rely on it at further risk. Plus, we cannot keep opening new fossil fuel projects if we want to address climate change,” sustainability TikTok creator Alaina Wood said in a video this week (filmed in front of a waterfall, literally screaming in the woods) before urging her 350,000 followers to sign Change.org petitions opposing the drilling project. “Together, we can absolutely stop Willow,” Wood said.