But the draft environmental impact statement from the Bureau of Land Management evaluated different alternatives and did not express a preference. The alternatives included reducing the number of drilling sites — and building nothing at all — but environmentalists greeted the new assessment as another worrying step on the road to approval. A public comment period now ensues, followed by a final decision.
“We are disappointed to see BLM moving forward with considering the Willow plan when it is so clearly inconsistent with the goals this administration has set to transition away from fossil fuels and avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis,” said Jeremy Lieb, an attorney with Earthjustice, in a statement. “This single project, which will release a staggering amount of climate pollution, threatens to send us dangerously off track by undercutting urgently needed measures to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.”
Willow, which was approved in the final year of the Trump administration, would bring hundreds of miles of roads and pipelines, and between three to five drilling sites, airstrips, a gravel mine and a large new processing facility, to the pristine tundra and wetlands of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the largest block of public land in the country. There are only two drilling sites producing oil in the 23 million-acre reserve, both run by ConocoPhillips.
Alaska’s political leaders have long supported the project as a way to bolster oil production on the North Slope that has been declining since the 1980s. With soaring gas prices and supply disruptions due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Biden administration has also faced growing political pressure to boost production.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) described the project as her “top priority” for the administration and said she wants to see construction begin this winter.