Willow Project

The scheme would represent the biggest American oil field in decades, but environmental campaigners are urging Joe Biden to reject it.

Alaska groups plan to gather in front of the U.S. Capitol to make a case for a proposed $8 Billion oil and gas project in the National Petroleum Reserve ...

Those resolutions, which passed both bodies unanimously, will be presented to the Alaska Congressional Delegation in a show of support. On Monday, the Alaska Senate passed a resolution in support of the Willow project. The BLM says it would allow three, with a fourth to be considered later.

The White House has said it could shrink the ConocoPhillips Willow project and block Arctic Ocean drilling. But environmental groups are not won over.

In recent weeks, several Alaska Native groups have also traveled to Washington for routine meetings that have often become about Willow and the state’s oil industry. From 2015 to 2021, the Alaskan economy performed “at or near the bottom” nationally in four key measures of economic health, according to a report released last year by the University of Alaska Center for Economic Development. That has led to an aggressive lobbying campaign from Murkowski and other Alaskan elected officials to persuade the White House to accept the three-pad option outlined in the review. “You can see by the expression and the body language that is not a factor in their decision-making. The company’s plan for a 30-year project includes drilling on top of permafrost and constructing a network of chilling tubes to keep it frozen even as the region warms. “The western Arctic is one of the world’s last truly intact landscapes with tens of millions of acres that are completely undeveloped and that have only known subsistence use,” Sen. But the project’s supporters include other Biden allies — trade unions, many Alaska Natives and [two key Alaskan politicians](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/03/alaska-lawmakers-up-pressure-biden-approve-massive-oil-project/?itid=lk_inline_manual_21) — who say the project will boost the economy in a region that needs it. “We believe this project fits with the Biden Administration’s priorities on environmental and social justice, facilitating the energy transition and enhancing our energy security — all while creating good union jobs and providing benefits to Alaska Native communities,” company spokesman Dennis Nuss said in a statement. On Monday and in February, White House officials outlined two possible options for prominent environmentalists, suggesting the administration may pair one of the options with the offshore drilling ban and other moves, the three individuals said. But according to individuals familiar with the process, White House officials have taken control of final deliberations, struggling to figure out whether a scaled-back version of the project can appease both environmentalists and Alaskan allies. That has pushed the administration to search for a compromise, hoping to curb backlash on a project that conservationists see as an irreversible catastrophe. They added that administration officials are seriously considering shrinking the Arctic project to just two approved drilling pads, a size so small that officials for ConocoPhillips — the company that has spent

This 2019 aerial photo provided by ConocoPhillips shows an exploratory drilling camp at the proposed site of the Willow oil project on Alaska's North Slope.

The U.S. But the U.S. Attorneys general from oil-producing states convinced a federal judge to lift the suspension — a ruling later overturned by an appeals court. Reforestation work on federal lands was something the administration already planned and needed to meet its broader climate goals, said Michael Lazarus, a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute. Approval of the project would represent a betrayal by Biden, who promised during the 2020 campaign to end new oil and gas drilling on federal lands, environmentalists say. Justice Department attorneys in 2021 defended in court an environmental review conducted during the Trump administration that approved the project. away from the oil, coal and gas. There also is “majority consensus” in support in the North Slope region, said Nagruk Harcharek, president of the group Voice of the Arctic Inupiat, whose members include leaders from across much of that region. The project could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the company — about 1.5 per cent of total U.S. But in Alaska, Willow represents the biggest oil field in decades. It would have a roughly two per cent reduction in emissions compared to ConocoPhillips’ favoured approach. is weighing approval of a major oil project on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope that supporters say represents an economic lifeline for Indigenous communities in the region but environmentalists say is counter to President Joe Biden’s climate goals.

JUNEAU — The Biden administration is weighing approval of a major oil project on Alaska's petroleum-rich North Slope that supporters say represents an ...

The scheme would represent the biggest American oil field in decades, but environmental campaigners are urging Joe Biden to reject it.

WASHINGTON, DC – As the Biden administration prepares to issue its final decision on ConocoPhillips' Willow Project, a crucial energy initiative on Alaska's ...

By working cooperatively with Bureau of Land Management and ConocoPhillips, we have developed the Willow Project into something that will benefit our region while minimizing impacts to the land, animals, and our subsistence lifestyle. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-AK) joined prominent Iñupiat leaders for an on-the-record media roundtable to discuss the Willow Project and what its reapproval will mean for the North Slope. Our native leaders, the majority of whom are subsistence hunters, strongly support this project and do not believe that it will significantly impact subsistence hunting. This project fulfills the promise that President Biden ran on and touted since entering office.” Its economic benefits to our communities are clear, as is Willow’s ability to coexist with our subsistence traditions. But don’t take our word for it: see below for examples of how Alaskans are coming together to urge the project’s reapproval.