Haaland can stop unwise Alaska oil project
Willow, the largest drilling proposal in the U.S., will undermine climate work
As a company that has supported land and water protection around the world for decades, often in partnership with Indigenous peoples, Patagonia is deeply concerned about America’s Arctic. We strongly oppose the Willow Master Development Plan, and we’re asking Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to stop it.
ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project is the largest oil drilling proposal in the United States right now. Willow would cause longterm destruction to the health of the planet and the Western Arctic ecosystem, which supports caribou, geese, loons, salmon, polar bears and bowhead whales, along with Indigenous communities who rely on those traditional food sources. Plans call for the construction of up to five drill pads with up to 50 wells on each pad, a road system, an airstrip, pipelines, a gravel mine and more. Burning the oil produced would release more than 260 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
Willow does not have the full support of the local Indigenous community in Alaska. Neither the city of Nuiqsut nor the Native Village of Nuiqsut — the residents who would be closest to the drills — want this. Nuiqsut Mayor Rosemary Ahtuangaruak has warned that the project would threaten crucial habitat for the caribou, fish and moose her people rely on for subsistence hunting.
I appreciate how Haaland and President Biden are taking the climate and ecological crisis seriously, from signing the Inflation Reduction Act to restoring the Bears Ears National Monument boundaries. However, if Willow moves forward, it will undermine the administration’s 2030 greenhouse gas pollution reduction target.
At the very least, we need further studies to analyze the impacts of Willow on caribou and subsistence hunting, and we need the government to officially quantify the projected greenhouse gas emissions produced by this project. But, ideally, Haaland will stop the project now by choosing a “no action alternative” on Willow. Interior did say in a Feb. 1 press release that it has “substantial concerns about the Willow project” and it can release their decision as early as this month.
Proponents of the project say it will create 2,500 temporary construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs. They’re talking less about how much profit ConocoPhillips stands to reap. And at what cost? The emissions generated in Willow’s name would be the equivalent of the annual emissions of 76 coal power plants and cause at least $19.8 billion in climate change damage. We should instead focus on transitioning to clean energy, which can provide good jobs without hurting communities and global climate stability. As the conservationist David Brower said, “There is no business to be done on a dead planet.”
I’ve been impressed by Haaland since she took over at DOI. She has helped protect Bears Ears, canceled lease sales for big oil and listened to tribal communities. Now, we need her help to stop this unwise, unnecessary project as our window to act on climate is closing rapidly.