Other Alaska Natives living closer to the planned project, including city officials and tribal members in the Native village of Nuiqsut, are deeply concerned about the health and environmental impacts of a major oil development. “Without that money and revenue stream, we’re reliant on the state and the feds.” “Willow presents an opportunity to continue that investment in the communities,” Nagruk Harcharek, president of the advocacy group Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, told CNN. All three lawmakers in Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation met with President Joe Biden and his senior advisers on March 3, urging the president and his administration to approve the project.Ī coalition of Alaska Native groups on the North Slope also supports the project, saying it could be a much-needed new source of revenue for the region and fund services including education and health care. The state’s lawmakers say the project will create jobs, boost domestic energy production and lessen the country’s reliance on foreign oil. “We and our clients don’t see any acceptable version of this project, we think the analysis is unlawful,” Jeremy Lieb, an Alaska-based senior attorney for Earthjustice, previously told CNN. Earthjustice has told CNN it is preparing a complaint, and it has already started laying out their legal rationale, saying the Biden administration’s authority to protect surface resources on Alaska’s public lands includes taking steps to reduce planet-warming carbon pollution – which Willow would ultimately add to. The Willow Project will almost certainly face a legal challenge. What could the legal arguments be against Willow? And since the project needs to be fully constructed before the oil can be produced, it could take years for the oil pumped out of Willow to reach the market. If environmental groups secure an injunction before then to stop or delay the project, it could delay construction for at least a year. Depending on the weather, the Alaska’s winter season could end sometime in April. Construction on Willow can only be done during the winter season because it needs ice roads to build the rest of the oil project’s infrastructure – including hundreds of miles of roads and pipelines and a processing facility. Can it actually work?Įarthjustice, an environmental law group, is expected to file a complaint against the project soon and will likely seek an injunction to try to block the project from going forward.Įnvironmental groups and ConocoPhillips are each racing against the clock. However, it is unclear exactly when that will happen, in large part due to impending legal challenges.Ĭlimate activists gather to protest with demanding President Biden stop the Willow Project by unfurling a banner on the Lafayette Square in front of the White House on Januin Washington D.C. Now that the Biden administration has given the Willow project the green light, construction can begin. If they had pursued those options, they could have faced steep fines in addition to legal action from ConocoPhillips. They determined that legally, courts wouldn’t have allowed them to fully reject or drastically reduce the project, the sources said. The Biden administration felt its hands were tied with the project because Conoco has existing and valid leases in the area, two government sources told CNN. Three pads will allow the company to drill about 90% of the oil they are pursuing. ConocoPhillips was initially approved to construct five drill pads, which the Biden administration ultimately reduced to three. Willow was proposed by ConocoPhillips and originally approved by the Trump administration in 2020. The company is the only one that currently has oil drilling operations in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, though its two operating projects are smaller than Willow would be. That oil would take years to reach the market since the project has yet to be constructed.ĬonocoPhillips is a Houston-based energy company that has been exploring and drilling for oil in Alaska for years. The area where the project is planned holds up to 600 million barrels of oil. Here’s what to know about the Willow Project.ĬonocoPhillips’ Willow Project is a massive and decadeslong oil drilling venture on Alaska’s North Slope in the National Petroleum Reserve, which is owned by the federal government. On March 13, the Biden administration approved the controversial Willow Project in Alaska.ĬonocoPhillips’ massive Willow oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope moved through the administration’s approval process for months, galvanizing a sudden uprising of online activism against it, including more than one million letters written to the White House in protest of the project and a petition more than 3 million signatures.
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