Biden Administration Approves Massive Oil Drilling Project in Alaska

ConocoPhillips was allowed to continue with its North Slope Alaska $8 billion project by the Biden administration Willow Project While making the Arctic Ocean inaccessible to oil development, and prohibiting new leases on 13,000,000 acres of the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska’s 23 Million Acres is drawing criticism from all angles.

ConocoPhillips should not be included among the critics.

“This was the right decision for Alaska and our nation,” Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips Chair/CEO said in Make a statement. “Willow fits within 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.”

For Houston-based ConocoPhillips, the green-light ends five years of regulatory review that saw its initial five-pad proposal whittled back to three with mounting fear—until the decision was released March 13—the Department of Interior’s (DOI) Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would recommend Willow be trimmed to two pads, making the endeavor financially infeasible.

ConocoPhillips said in a statement that they “welcomes the decision … adopting the three core pads” Plan, Lance assured Willow “will provide reliable energy while adhering to the highest environmental standards.”

2,500 to build, 300 to man

ConocoPhillips plans to spend $8 billion on roads, pipelines and 219 wells to construct the three pads. The project will also require the hiring of 2,500 Alaskan workers. This support came from the Alaska CIO/AFL.

These three gravel pads of 12 acres will be spread over 556 acres. The 55-square-mile horizontal drilling circle at 22,000 feet deep on each pad will accommodate 300 permanent workers. The company intends to increase the pad’s drilling radius to 154 miles and to 37,000 feet below the tundra over the 30-year duration of the project.

The company predicts Willow will produce about 1.5 percent of the total U.S. crude oil production, producing around 180,000 barrels per day. ConocoPhillips estimates that it will produce over 600 million barrels of crude oil in its three-decade lifetime and generate $17 billion in revenue for the federal government, Alaska and the North Slope Borough.

ConocoPhillips presented its proposal for five pads in 2018. In October 2020, the Trump administration approved it. Earthjustice was one of the groups that challenged the approval by the BLM of the environmental impact statement (EIS). The Justice Department of Biden’s administration supported the EIS in court proceedings.

A federal judge stopped approval in August 2021 and returned the EIS back to the BLM for revision. He ordered that it be available within 18 months.

The BLM released its revised review on February 1st, and recommended in its “preferred alternative” Willow to be reapproved, but reduced from five pads down to three.

The BLM published the revised EIS on February 1st, and it expired March 2nd. A 30-day public comment period was held. However, no decision was taken.

The news of the decision was spread over the weekend. A formal announcement is expected to be made on March 15. But the BLM released its decision early—on March 13—by posting its 68-page supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) Visit its website.

Alaskans applaud

The Willow Project was approved by both chambers of Alaska Legislature. Gov. Mike Dunleavy is a proponent, and the state’s congressional delegation—Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, and Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola—support the project.

Murkowski joined an organization with Sullivan, Sullivan, & Peltola on March 1, 2001. “amazing constellation of Alaska royalty” To call upon Biden to approve Willow, state legislators, union representatives, Native Americans and Alaskan Natives living in Washington should all be included

“We did it, Alaska!” Murkowski stated this in a tweet. “I’m so relieved that an economically viable Willow Project is being reapproved. What a huge and needed victory for all Alaska. This project will produce lasting economic and security benefits for our state and the nation.”

In a joint statementMurkowski, Sullivan, Peltola all said that they “welcomed the Biden administration’s decision… after litigation, a court remand, years of supplemental environmental analysis, and a united statewide push in strong support” To approve an “economically viable three-pad” project.

Sullivan received the green-light “is critically important for Alaska’s economy, good-paying jobs for our families, and the future prosperity of our state” Also “for our national security and environment. Producing much-needed American energy in Alaska with the world’s highest environmental standards and lowest emissions enhances the global environment.

“Now, it’s on us here in Alaska to make sure that we make the best of this opportunity—that we use the revenues and jobs and economic opportunity from this project to make investments in the future of Alaska,” Peltola said. “For this to be a 21st-century economy, it is necessary to increase the number of schools, houses, rural Internet and electric lines, as well as our school stock. Alaska can become a model for what an energy bridge to future looks like.

New Restrictions ‘Legally Dubious’

While welcoming the Willow green-light, Sullivan criticized the administration’s decision to make 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean and 13 million acres within the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing.

“The fight to unleash American and Alaskan energy is far from over,” Sullivan said. “The fact that this Willow [decision] comes with the announcement of future legally dubious resource development restrictions on Alaska lands and waters is infuriating and demonstrates that the Biden administration’s unprecedented lock-up of our state will continue.”

The Arctic restrictions also drew rebuke from the American Petroleum Institute (API), which represents the nation’s largest oil and gas companies, which cited the administration’s confusing “mixed signals” to the industry.

“In the current energy crisis, the Biden administration should be focused on strengthening U.S. energy security and standing with the working families of Alaska by supporting the responsible development of federal lands and waters—not acting to restrict it,” API Senior Vice President Frank Macchiarola said in a statement. “We urge the administration to end the mixed signals on energy policy and focus instead on real solutions for the American people.”

Environmental Concerns

Opponents call the Willow Project “a carbon bomb” noting, by the BLM’s analysis, it would produce enough oil each year to release 9.2 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere, the equivalent to the combined emissions of 2 million gas-powered cars.

Over the course of 30 years, the BLM calculates, Willow would release and estimated 278 million metric tons of carbon, which opponents say is more than 70 coal-fired power plants could produce every year.

Approving the three-pad proposal angered many Lower 48 Democrats and environmental groups, including the League of Conservation Voters, Sierra Club, and Earthjustice, among key vote-generators for Biden’s presidential campaign. Opponents launched a #StopWillow petition blitz, convincing more than 50 million to demand that he kill the project.

“Biden approved Willow knowing full well that it’ll cause massive and irreversible destruction, which is appalling,” said Center for Biological Diversity Senior Attorney Kristen Monsell in a statement. “People and wildlife will suffer, and extracting and burning more fossil fuel will warm the climate even faster. Biden has no excuse for letting this project go forward in any form. New Arctic drilling makes no sense, and we’ll fight hard to keep ConocoPhillips from breaking ground.”

“We can’t drill our way to a sustainable future. We must conserve public lands, not sell them off to corporate polluters,” Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said in a statement. “The harmful effects of President Biden’s decision cannot be overstated.”

Jealous said those “harmful effects” will be felt environmentally and by Biden politically.

“By allowing ConocoPhillips to move forward with this operation, [Biden] and his administration have made it almost impossible to achieve the climate goals they set for public lands,” he said.

“Willow will be one of the largest oil and gas operations on federal public lands in the country, and the carbon pollution it will spew into the air will have devastating effects for our communities, wildlife, and the climate. We will suffer the consequences of this for decades to come.”

“We are too late in the climate crisis to approve massive oil and gas projects that directly undermine the new clean economy that the Biden Administration committed to advancing,” Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen said in a statement, hinting at legal action.

“We know President Biden understands the existential threat of climate, but he is approving a project that derails his own climate goals.”

Sullivan said proponents are ready for expected legal challenges..

“We are prepared to defend this decision against likely frivolous legal challenges from the same Lower 48 NGOs who’ve consistently tried to kill the Willow Project,” he said. “We will do so by working closely with the same Alaska stakeholders who brought us this far. We hope that the Alaska federal judge taking this case hears and respects their voices.

“Alaskans should take pride in knowing that when we come together and fight together for our common prosperity, our voices cannot be ignored.”