The Washington-Biden administration has taken an important step towards approving a major oil drilling project on the North Slope in Alaska. Allowing this to proceed has ridiculed President Biden’s promise of climate change and offended environmental activists to end new oil leases.
Known as Willow, the ConocoPhillips project in Alaska’s National Oil Reserve was initially approved under the Trump administration and later supported by the Biden administration, but has since not been fully considered for environmental reviews. Climate change and impacts on wildlife blocked by the judges mentioned.
On Friday, the Biden administration announced a new environmental analysis.
In that analysis, the Home Office said the multi-billion dollar plan would produce more than 180,000 barrels of crude oil per day at peak times and emit at least 278 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions from the burning of oil over a lifetime. I said. Not only produced, but also from construction and drilling activities at the site.
The oil company plans to have five drilling sites, processing facilities, hundreds of miles of pipelines, about 40 miles of new gravel roads, seven bridges, runways and gravel mines in areas of hawk bears, caribou and migratory birds. Is required. bird. Opponents of the project claim that development is harmful to wildlife and creates dangerous new levels of greenhouse gases.
In a statement by the Home Office, the new analysis includes several options, including a reduction in the number of drilling sites and an “no action” (or no drilling at all) option, the Willow Project. Authorities will receive comments from the general public for 45 days and may make a final decision later this year.
Biden administration’s environmental agenda
President Biden is pushing for stronger regulation, but faces a narrow path to achieving his goals in the fight against global warming.
However, the Biden administration has expressed support for the project just by publishing the analysis, opposition said. Willow is Alaska’s senator Lisa Murkowski’s priority, a moderate Republican, and is likely to have senators defeat the party and uphold some policy compromises with Democratic appointees.
In a statement, Murkowski called the move a “major announcement” and “responsible for their commitment to review this additional environmental review so that construction can begin this winter.” ..
In a statement, ConocoPhillips said the Willow Project “creates employment opportunities for union workers and contributes to local tax revenues that benefit the North Slope community and significant state and federal tax revenues over the years.” ..
The announcement comes when Mr. Biden is trying to show voters that he is working to increase domestic oil supplies as prices soared following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Just last week, the administration opened the door to more offshore oil and gas leasing in coastal waters over the next five years, but ensured the mining of significant new fossil fuels.
However, as a candidate, President Biden has promised to terminate the new federal oil and gas lease in an attempt to guarantee that young voters and others concerned about climate change will keep the country away from fossil fuels.
Combustion of coal, oil, and gas causes large amounts of greenhouse gases to be released into the atmosphere, causing the Earth’s temperature to rise dangerously.
“I’m completely angry that @DOI is a proformer one step away from the approval of the ConocoPhillips Willow project,” said Energy and Environmental Policy at the American Progress Center, a liberal think tank that strongly supports the Biden administration. Senior Vice President Christie Goldhus said. I wrote on Twitter late Friday using the initials of the Ministry of Interior.
“This oil and gas project will be a hub for decades of development in areas where climate change is melting rapidly,” she writes.
For the last 60 years Alaska is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the United States.. Arctic ecosystems are disrupted, sea ice is disappearing, sea levels are rising, and the ground is melting. At some point, ConocoPhillips announced plans to install a “chiller” in the permafrost layer that is melting due to climate change to keep it firm enough to support equipment for drilling oil. did.
Sharon L. Gleason of the Federal District Court for Alaska, a federal judge who blocked the project last year, sent the decision back to the government to start over. There was no deadline for the Biden administration to reissue a new analysis.
The Willow Project is located in the northeastern part of the Alaska National Oil Reserve, an area reserved by the federal government for oil and gas development. The first discovery of oil in the Willow region was made by ConocoPhillips Alaska in 2017, and the project created more than 1,000 jobs and more than 400 full-time jobs at the peak of construction. Is expected.
The new analysis includes the potential of the project by excluding two of the five proposed drill sites from consideration, including the removal of the proposed drill site and related infrastructure at the northernmost tip of the Lake Tesekupuk Special Region. Includes a new alternative, said Home Office officials to reduce the size of the calf, which is important for the Teshekupuk Lake Caribou herd.
The alternative produces slightly less emissions (equivalent to 278 million metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions over the project’s 30-year lifespan) than ConocoPhillips’ recommended plan. According to the analysis, the oil company’s plans will generate 284 million metric tons of emissions.