Climate activists worried after Biden releases review of Alaska oil project

The Biden administration on Friday released a new environmental assessment of a controversial oil project on Alaska’s North Slope but declined to reveal whether it was leaning toward approving a project that has faced stiff opposition from environmentalists and has some Native Alaskans worried it will disrupt their subsistence lifestyle.

Climate activists had hoped the administration would either sharply curtail or end a multibillion-dollar effort by the energy giant ConocoPhillips to expand oil infrastructure in the Alaskan Arctic, a project known as Willow. Environmentalists argue that burning all that new fossil fuel would undercut much of President Biden’s climate agenda, which proposes cutting emissions by more than 50 percent by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.

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.

A ConocoPhillips spokesperson on Friday said it was committed to Willow because “it will supply much needed energy for the United States, while serving as a strong example of environmentally and socially responsible development that offers extensive public benefits.”

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.

Facing catastrophic climate change, this Alaskan village can’t quit Big Oil

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.

“Responsibly-developed Alaskan energy benefits both our national security and American families who are facing near-record energy prices,” Murkowski said in a statement.