Willow Project

The Biden administration has approved the Willow Project, an oil-drilling operation in Alaska. The plan's opponents say the costs outweigh its benefits.

The plan is facing opposition from environmental groups, indigenous communities, and other stakeholders who worry that it will have a negative impact on the environment, particularly on wildlife, water resources, and climate change. The project encompasses an area that is remote and largely untouched at the moment. The benefits that have cited by supporters of the project are mainly economic. Online activism against the project has swelled in recent days, and it has become a trending topic with videos bearing hashtags like #StopWillow garnering 50 million views. The venture would also involve building new infrastructure, such as roads, pipelines, and processing facilities, to support the drilling activities. There has been a tremendous increase in online activism against the plan the past week, with a

The Willow Project may seem far-removed from our two Portlands. The reality is it has grave consequences for the ocean, which many Mainers and Oregonians ...

If not for the ocean, [ the average global temperatures on land would be 122°F](https://qz.com/1141633/if-oceans-stopped-absorbing-heat-from-climate-change-life-on-land-would-average-122f#:~:text=%F0%9F%94%A5%F0%9F%94%A5%F0%9F%94%A5-,If%20oceans%20stopped%20absorbing%20heat%20from%20climate%20change%2C%20life%20on,climate%20change%20is%20happening%20underwater.&text=November%2029%2C%202017-,We%20may%20earn%20a%20commission%20from%20links%20on%20this%20page,been%20absorbed%20by%20the%20oceans.). [ 90% of the excess heat](https://www.climate.gov/news-features/understanding-climate/climate-change-ocean-heat-content) and nearly [ one-third of the carbon generated by greenhouse gas emissions](https://www.noaa.gov/education/resource-collections/ocean-coasts/ocean-acidification). Marine heatwaves – commonly known as the “blob” – [are becoming more common](https://www.oregonlive.com/environment/2019/09/return-of-the-blob-oregon-researchers-investigate-latest-marine-heatwave-that-could-hurt-pacific-ecosystems.html), threatening marine wildlife such as gray whales, upending weather patterns and spurring algal blooms that delay or shut down fisheries from crab to salmon. That future will not be possible, however, until the president stops approving projects that will keep the oil spigot flowing for decades. [ ConocoPhillips Willow Project](https://www.eenews.net/articles/3-things-to-know-about-bidens-alaska-oil-decision/) in Alaska – an oil drilling project that will further fuel the flames of climate change. [warming faster](https://www.gmri.org/stories/warming-22/) than 97% of the world’s ocean surface, there is [increasing vulnerability ](https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/new-england-mid-atlantic/climate/northeast-vulnerability-assessment)for many commercial species of fish. [ made clear](https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050) that we cannot reach global climate goals with any new oil and gas development. Right now, the ocean is at a tipping point. So this will not, as touted, reduce gas prices in the short term, and with millions of Americans petitioning against it, will also not help the president get reelected. During his campaign he promised, “No more drilling on federal lands, period, period, period.” And said it would be “a big disaster, in my view” to drill in the Arctic. But instead of water, gasoline gushes out of the hose, and the flames grow. In his State of the Union last month, the President called the climate crisis an existential threat.

The Biden administration has made tackling climate change a key plank of its platform. But a new decision from the White House has left environmental ...

[Mexico ](https://www.france24.com/en/tag/mexico/)City is one of the most polluted cities in the world. [collapse of two regional banks in the US](https://www.france24.com/en/tag/banking/). As markets struggle through the fallout of the collapse, the instability has stirred up bad memories of the financial crisis of 2008.

We're past the point on climate change where a 'balanced' approach can be defended. All new oil extraction projects must be resisted.

To the editor: Extracting undeveloped fossil fuels anywhere is a tough call. His climate promises were victims of legal necessities, and he won significant battles for the environment in the struggle. The game is far from over. The climate crisis is far advanced, and we are approaching critical thresholds. It was another nail in the threatened coffin of our future, a catch-22 for President Biden and a blow to America’s aspirations for global climate leadership. Keep oil in the ground

The project would produce more than 600 million barrels of oil over a 30-year period, according to the 'New York Times'.

According to Reuters, ConocoPhillips had planned to build up to five drill sites, several miles of lengthy roadways, seven bridges, and pipelines. The project would produce more than 600 million barrels of oil over a 30-year period, more than 1.5 times the amount currently held in the US Strategic Petroleum Reserve, according to the New York Times. New Delhi: On March 13, 2023, President Joe Biden’s government formally approved the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska, sparking vehement backlash from environmentalists and climate change campaigners.

The lawsuit claims federal agencies violated the National Environmental Policy Act by approving Willow because of its potential impacts to sensitive Arctic ...

“Subsistence Inupiaq lifestyle that we live is important, it’s the most important for us,” he said. “They’re positive steps, we like them,” he said. Nagruk Harcharek is president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, based in Utqiagvik. Woody said Willow runs counter to the administration’s goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions [Crisis-ridden Russian gas industry looks to Arctic for more LNG](https://www.rcinet.ca/eye-on-the-arctic/2023/03/10/crisis-ridden-russian-gas-industry-looks-to-arctic-for-more-lng/), The Independent Barents Observer He said on “Talk of Alaska” he looks forward to economic benefits in the form of jobs and dividends for locals on the North Slope.

Many communities on Alaska's North Slope celebrated the project's approval, citing new jobs and the influx of money that will help support schools, other public ...

Alaska's bipartisan congressional delegation met with Biden and his advisers in early March to plead their case for the project, and Alaska Native lawmakers also met with Haaland to urge support. “That's the walk our leaders have to walk,” said Patkotak, an independent who supported Willow. Willow is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a vast region on Alaska's resource-rich North Slope that is roughly the size of Maine. A second lawsuit seeking to block the project was filed Wednesday by Greenpeace and other environmental groups. to be ready to meet with Haaland just two hours later. For Alaska Natives to reconcile their points of view with one another, it will take discussions. Many communities on Alaska’s North Slope celebrated the project's approval, citing new jobs and the influx of money that will help support schools, other public services and infrastructure investments in their isolated villages. ... It is a matter of our survival.” Money from the ConocoPhillips project won't be enough to mitigate those threats, they said. Haaland visited the North Slope last spring just hours after state Rep. “They are payoffs for the loss of our health and culture,” the Nuiqsut leaders wrote. “I could say that the majority of the people, the majority of our community and the majority of the people were excited about the Willow Project,” she said.

“Biden can't have his cake and eat it, too” — Here's what this environmental attorney had to say about Pres. Biden's approval of the Willow project while ...

Biden’s approval of the Willow project while claiming to fight against climate change. Biden's Approval of the Willow Project

Some say that oil money can't counter the damages caused by climate change, but others defend the project as economically vital.

“That’s the walk our leaders have to walk,” said Patkotak, an independent who supported Willow. Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation met with Biden and his advisers in early March to plead their case for the project, and Alaska Native lawmakers also met with Haaland to urge support. Willow is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a vast region on Alaska’s resource-rich North Slope that is roughly the size of Maine. A second lawsuit seeking to block the project was filed Wednesday by Greenpeace and other environmental groups. to be ready to meet with Haaland just two hours later. For Alaska Natives to reconcile their points of view with one another, it will take discussions. Many communities on Alaska’s North Slope celebrated the project’s approval, citing new jobs and the influx of money that will help support schools, other public services and infrastructure investments in their isolated villages. … It is a matter of our survival.” The community is about 36 miles from the Willow project. Haaland visited the North Slope last fall, just hours after state Rep. “They are payoffs for the loss of our health and culture,” the Nuiqsut leaders wrote. “I could say that the majority of the people, the majority of our community and the majority of the people were excited about the Willow Project,” she said.

The lawsuit alleges that the Bureau of Land Management failed to take a hard look at the impact ConocoPhillips' drilling project will have on the ...

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[declared](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/may/18/no-new-investment-in-fossil-fuels-demands-top-energy-economist) in 2021 that the building of new fossil infrastructure had to stop then. That is the nature of a problem that suffuses nearly every aspect of industrial and postindustrial civilization: The scale of the challenge seems simultaneously to argue for urgency and to counsel a kind of indifference. In a report last year, the Tyndall Center in Britain [found](https://tyndall.ac.uk/news/rich-countries-must-end-oil-and-gas-production-by-2034-for-a-fair-1-5c-transition/) that to reach ambitious climate goals equitably, fossil fuel production in the world’s rich countries had to be phased out entirely by 2034. This is bad — any amount of additional carbon promises to push the world even farther outside the envelope of temperatures that have enclosed, and indeed helped cultivate, the full history of human civilization to this point. [agreed](https://www.reuters.com/business/environment/eu-agrees-push-fossil-fuel-phaseout-ahead-cop28-2023-03-09/) to push for a fossil fuel phaseout at the next U.N. This sounds like good news, and indeed it is — much better to not continue doing more damage to the future of the planet’s climate each year than we did in every previous year in human history. climate envoy John Kerry [lectured](https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/us-climate-envoy-kerry-calls-african-nations-help-curb-emissions-2022-09-15/) the nations of sub-Saharan Africa about the risks of fossil fuel development, the United States approved more oil and gas expansion than any other nation in the world, according to Oil Change International. climate conference in Dubai in December — a promise that has [some holes](https://twitter.com/Rlalen/status/1635314899869106176) and isn’t quite as absolute as, say, the [Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty](https://fossilfueltreaty.org/). From there, all we have to do to stabilize the planet’s temperature is to get from 40 billion metric tons of carbon emissions every year all the way down to zero. In its first two years, the Biden administration approved [more oil and gas ](https://news.yahoo.com/biden-granted-more-oil-and-gas-drilling-permits-than-trump-in-his-first-2-years-in-office-190528616.html)permits than the Trump administration had at that point. Those gas exports are expected to more than double by the end of the decade. Period, period, period.” But for all the talk about the renewables boom and the green transition, and all the money pouring into them as well, there has been little concerted effort, in the United States at least, to really draw down our profligate use of the stuff that is actually poisoning the climate: fossil fuels.

The Alaskan oil project is a symbol of a larger argument: What matters more, curbing demand or keeping fossil fuels in the ground?

If we count the emissions both at the point of extraction and at the point of consumption, that amounts to double-counting. But for activists and environmentalists, any amount of economic discussion doesn’t change a few simple facts: The United States has promised to reach net-zero carbon emissions, but is still extracting oil. In the days after the decision, many outlets reported that the project’s estimated 9.2 millions tons of carbon dioxide per year were equivalent to adding roughly Most emissions are counted at the point of consumption — that is, when drivers put the oil in their cars and burn it for fuel. [report](https://www.rff.org/publications/reports/partners-not-rivals-the-power-of-parallel-supply-side-and-demand-side-climate-policy/) published last year by Resources for the Future, Prest argued that the best approach is “both/and." The Biden administration, however, has not taken drastic steps to cut fossil fuel supply, even as the government spends hundreds of billions of dollars boosting clean energy. What matters more — cutting fossil fuel demand, by encouraging consumers to shift to things like renewable energy and electric vehicles, or tamping down on supply by preventing oil and gas drilling in the United States? During the 2020 presidential campaign, Biden had promised to prevent new oil and gas drilling on federal lands — a vow that runs contrary to his administration’s approval of ConocoPhillips’s operation, known as Willow, in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. If the government offers a $7,500 tax credit for electric vehicles, for example, that will push people away from gas-powered cars and reduce demand for fossil fuels — thus lowering the cost of oil and gas. “I ultimately think it’s more efficient and effective to go from the demand side,” Gross said. The Biden administration, with its huge investments in a build-out of clean energy, has largely focused on the former. “There’s plenty of oil and gas in the world,” said Samantha Gross, director of the energy security and climate initiative at the Brookings Institution.

“In that moment, I felt a lot of hope that the administration was listening to us," said Joshi, a California college student who is a leader of Gen-Z for Change ...

“We’ve seen time and time again that the public has not absorbed the enormity of what Biden has done on climate so far," she said. The interview aired on Monday night, several hours after the Willow decision was announced. The one thing that millions of people wrote in asking you not to do over the last three weeks?” But the youngest Democrats, ages 18 through 34, were less favorable on both marks. Dan Sullivan told Fox News that he pressed Biden on how he could justify blocking Willow when the administration also lifted sanctions to allow oil imports from Venezuela, which Sullivan called “one of the most polluting places to produce oil anywhere in the world.” White House officials said there's inevitable friction with activists, who always push for more urgent measures. [video explaining the Willow decision](https://twitter.com/SecDebHaaland/status/1635428951047766017?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet) was viewed more than 100,000 times on Twitter as of Thursday afternoon. [A TikTok video](https://www.tiktok.com/@alex.haraus/video/7210241925385882926) by environmentalist Alex Haraus was viewed more than 270,000 times. from meeting Biden's ambitious goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and a recent government study said the country will be able to produce 80% of its electricity without fossil fuels by 2030. Biden responded by urging companies to produce more oil in the United States. White House officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, acknowledged the indignation over Willow, which became a focal point for activism in recent weeks. Regulators focused on paring down the project's footprint during the approval process.

For more than six decades, Alaska's North Slope has been a focus of intense controversy over oil development and wilderness protection, with no end in sight ...

[ramped up exports](https://www.cmegroup.com/openmarkets/energy/2023/u-s--crude-oil-exports-to-eu-support-wti-as-global-benchmark.html) of oil and natural gas over the past year to become [a lifeline for Europe](https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/23/american-energy-europe-putin-00083750#:%7E:text=Instead%2C%20a%20flow%20of%20American,12%20percent%20of%20its%20oil.) as the European Union uses [sanctions and bans on Russian fossil fuel imports](https://eu-solidarity-ukraine.ec.europa.eu/eu-sanctions-against-russia-following-invasion-ukraine_en) to try to weaken the Kremlin’s ability to finance its war on Ukraine. The Biden administration also announced that it was putting 13 million acres of the NPR-A and all federal waters of the Arctic Ocean [off limits to new leases](https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/biden-harris-administration-announces-sweeping-protections-16-million-acres-land-and). [energy security as a top concern](https://www.iea.org/commentaries/where-things-stand-in-the-global-energy-crisis-one-year-on) of national leaders worldwide. imports have been able to [replace a major portion](https://www.politico.com/news/2023/02/23/american-energy-europe-putin-00083750#:%7E:text=Instead%2C%20a%20flow%20of%20American,12%20percent%20of%20its%20oil.) of Russian supply that Europe once counted on. [not expected there for several years](https://alaskabeacon.com/2023/01/19/state-expects-north-slope-oil-production-to-be-stable-and-then-tick-up-after-about-2027/), its timing will coincide with a forecast plateau or decline in total U.S. Canceling its leases would bring a court case that, if lost, would set a precedent, cost the government millions of dollars in fees and do nothing to stop oil drilling. Still other NPR-A drilling has occurred to the southwest ( [Harpoon prospect](https://static.conocophillips.com/files/resources/conocophillips-alaska-factsheet-2022.pdf)), northeast (Cassin), and southeast (Stirrup). [controversy shifted east to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge](https://theconversation.com/why-americans-will-never-agree-on-oil-drilling-in-the-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-88992). [the Peregrine discovery area](https://www.adn.com/business-economy/energy/2022/08/25/environmental-groups-sue-to-stop-federal-approval-of-exploration-at-alaska-oil-project/), estimated to hold around 1.6 billion barrels of oil. To the east lies the [Pikka-Horseshoe discovery area](https://dog.dnr.alaska.gov/documents/resourceevaluation/01_ags_luncheon_presentation_04-24-18.pdf), with around 2 billion barrels. Though no production existed at the time in NPR-A, geologic information and surface seeps of oil [suggested large resources](https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs024-01/fs024-01.pdf) across the North Slope. In the wake of 1970s oil crises, opponents failed to stop development.

Noah J. Gordon is acting co-director of the Sustainability, Climate, and Geopolitics Program and a fellow in the Europe Program at the Carnegie Endowment for ...

[overstated](https://direct.mit.edu/glep/article/20/4/4/95068/Prisoners-of-the-Wrong-Dilemma-Why-Distributive) the extent to which climate change is a collective action problem. [geoengineering](https://www.c2g2.net/solar-radiation-modification/) they are counting on to close the gap between the oil they intend to produce and the level of warming they are prepared to accept. In other words, just as high carbon taxes that reduce the demand for oil are difficult to pass, supply restrictions to impose a “ [shadow](https://www.slowboring.com/p/the-case-against-restricting-domestic) carbon price” are scary to countenance. Inflation Reduction Act took an important step forward by [increasing tax credits](https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/02/07/remarks-of-president-joe-biden-state-of-the-union-address-as-prepared-for-delivery/) for carbon capture, removal, and storage, but government officials could be more clear about the difference between emission cuts and negative emissions—and their separate plans for each. [rebound effect](https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1093/reep/rev017?journalCode=reep). In the real world, the Western Hemisphere will not allow Western Asia to produce nearly all of the oil for a much smaller oil market in 2050. [mid-transition](https://wires.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/wcc.768),” where fossil-fuel and zero-carbon systems have to coexist while constraining each other. This also is a reason that coalitions like the [Beyond Oil and Gas Alliance](https://beyondoilandgasalliance.org/who-we-are/), whose members pledge to phase out fossil fuel production, comprise countries with minimal fossil fuel revenues (such as Denmark or Costa Rica). Strictly speaking, the task isn’t to get to the last barrel of oil anytime soon: according to one report, the world could produce 40 million barrels of oil a day [in 2040](https://productiongap.org/2021report/#2021downloads) and still be on track to keep warming to 1.5 degrees. If Willow produces as much oil over thirty years as expected, the consumption of that oil would release the equivalent of [277 million tons](https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/109410/570) of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Alaskan legislators suggested they may challenge those “legally dubious” restrictions on future oil extraction, while environmental groups are preparing [lawsuits](https://www.eenews.net/articles/bidens-green-allies-promise-lawsuit-over-alaska-oil-project/) to try to stop the project. [Willow project](https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/03/13/willow-project-alaska-biden-conocophillips/), a massive operation that will allow ConocoPhillips to drill for oil on public land in Alaska.

WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre held a news briefing on Thursday as President Joe Biden faces criticism over his ...

Dan Sullivan told Fox News that he pressed Biden on how he could justify blocking Willow when the administration also lifted sanctions to allow oil imports from Venezuela, which Sullivan called “one of the most polluting places to produce oil anywhere in the world.” The interview aired on Monday night, several hours after the Willow decision was announced. “This is a very high profile project, and he is suffering from a lack of enthusiasm. The one thing that millions of people wrote in asking you not to do over the last three weeks?” But the youngest Democrats, ages 18 through 34, were less favorable on both marks. from meeting Biden’s ambitious goal for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and a recent government study said the country will be able to produce 80% of its electricity without fossil fuels by 2030. White House officials said there’s inevitable friction with activists, who always push for more urgent measures. White House officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, acknowledged the indignation over Willow, which became a focal point for activism in recent weeks. Willow could generate 180,000 barrels a day once it becomes operational in the coming years. “You approved Willow. Regulators focused on paring down the project’s footprint during the approval process. “There is disappointment.