WASHINGTON – The Biden administration has taken a major step in approving a massive oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, angering environmental activists who say allowing it to continue would make money. President Biden’s climate change promise to end new oil leases.
The ConocoPhillips project, known as Willow and located in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, was initially approved under the Trump administration and later supported by the Biden administration but was later approved. blocked by a judge who said the environmental assessment did not fully consider its impacts on climate change and wildlife.
On Friday, the Biden administration issued a new environmental analysis.
In that analysis, the Interior Department said the multibillion-dollar plan at its peak would produce more than 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day and would emit at least 278 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over its lifetime. survive from burning oil. manufactured, as well as from construction and drilling operations on site.
The oil company’s plan calls for five drilling sites, a processing facility, hundreds of miles of pipelines, nearly 40 miles of new gravel roads, seven bridges, an airstrip and a gravel mine in an area of home to polar bears, reindeer and migratory birds. Opponents of the project have argued that the development would harm wildlife and create dangerous new levels of greenhouse gases.
In a statement, the Home Office said that the new analysis includes a number of options, including reducing the number of drilling sites as well as an option for “no action” – or no drilling – and does not make a decision. final decision on the Willow project. The agency will solicit comments from the public for 45 days and is likely to make a final decision later this year.
The Biden Administration’s Environmental Agenda
President Biden is pushing for stronger regulations, but faces a narrow path to achieving his goal in the fight against global warming.
However, just by presenting the analysis, the Biden administration signaled its support for the project, opponents said. Willow is a preference for Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, a moderate Republican who is frequently the senator most likely to disrupt his party and support Democratic appointees and some policy compromises.
Ms Murkowski, in a statement, welcomed the move, calling it a “major announcement” and adding that she intends to hold the administration “responsible for their commitment to review an environmental assessment”. this addition so that construction can begin this winter.”
In a statement, ConocoPhillips said that the Willow project will “create job opportunities for union workers and contribute to local tax revenue that benefits communities on the North Slope, as well as federal tax revenue. and the state significantly for many years.”
The announcement comes as Mr Biden wants to show voters he is working to increase domestic oil supplies as prices rise in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Just last week, the government opens the door to more offshore oil and gas leasing in coastal waters over the next five years, all of which warrant the exploitation of new fossil fuels.
As a candidate, however, President Biden has pledged to end new federal oil and gas leases as he seeks to reassure younger voters and others concerned about climate change. climate change that he would pivot the country away from fossil fuels.
The burning of coal, oil and gas is responsible for the release of large amounts of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, leading to a dangerous increase in global temperatures.
“Absolutely furious that @DOI is just one step away from approving the ConocoPhillips Willow project,” said Christy Goldfuss, senior vice president for energy and environmental policy at the Center for American Progress, a private group. Liberal ideology strongly supports the Biden administration, wrote on Twitter late Friday using the initials of the Department of the Interior.
“This oil and gas project will be a development hub for DECADES in a place where climate change is happening rapidly,” she wrote.
Over the past 60 years, Alaska is warming twice as fast as the rest of the US. Arctic ecosystems are being disrupted, sea ice is disappearing, sea levels are rising, and land is thawing. At one point, ConocoPhillips announced plans to install “refrigeration equipment” into the permafrost — which is melting because of climate change — to keep it sturdy enough to support oil drilling equipment.
Last year, the federal judge who blocked the project, Sharon L. Gleason of the U.S. District Court for the Alaska District, sent the decision back to the government for re-implementation. There is no deadline for the Biden administration to re-release a new analysis.
The Willow project is located northeast of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, an area the federal government dedicates to oil and gas development. The initial discovery of oil in the Willow area was made in 2017 by ConocoPhillips Alaska, and the company says the project is expected to create more than 1,000 jobs during peak construction and more than 400 permanent jobs. .
The new analysis includes a new alternative that Interior Department officials said would reduce the potential size of the project by removing two of the five proposed drill sites from consideration, including removal of the proposed northernmost drilling site and associated infrastructure in the Lake Teshekpuk Special Area, an important breeding ground for the Lake Teshekpuk reindeer herd.
That alternative produces only slightly fewer emissions – 278 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions over the project’s 30-year life – than ConocoPhillips’ preferred plan. According to the analysis, the oil company’s plan will generate 284 million tons of emissions.
