Even the climate-conscious Biden administration supported ConocoPhillips ’s $6 billion oil development on Alaska’s Northern Slope, but that couldn’t stop a judge from throwing it in limbo on environmental grounds. U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason’s decision to rescind the Trump administration’s approval of the project is a “surprise” given that in May the current government defended the project in court, RBC Capital Markets analyst Scott Hanold said in a note Thursday. The setback for ConocoPhillips highlights how difficult it’s become for Western oil producers to seek growth in a world gripped by an unprecedented wave of heat, droughts, floods and wildfires blamed on man-made climate change. Investors, governments, lawmakers and courts are increasingly embracing concerns that in the past had been more typical of environmental activists. In the U.S., oil production has dropped about 13% from a record high of 13.1 million barrels a day before the pandemic, and […]