The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Why Alaska oil project is controversial
Indigenous people’s welfare weighed vs. environmentalists.
JUNEAU, ALASKA — The Biden administration is approv ng a major oil project on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope that supporters say represents an economic lifeline for Indigenous communities in the region but environmentalists say is counter to President Joe Biden’s climate goals.
The decision on Conocophillips Alaska’s Willow project, in a federal oil reserve roughly the size of Indiana, was revealed Monday.
iWhat the Willow project is
The project could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day, according to the company — about 1.5% of total U.S. oil production. The project is the largest proposed oil drilling on U.S. public land and the biggest oil field in Alaska in decades. Alaska Republican U.S. Sen. Dan Sullivan said the development could be “one of the biggest, most important resource development projects in our state’s history.”
On average, about 499,700 barrels of oil a day flow through the transAlaska pipeline, well below the late-1980s peak of 2.1 million barrels.
Conocophillips Alaska had proposed five drilling sites as part of the project. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management approved three drill sites, which Conocophillips Alaska has said it consid- ered a viable option. The Interior Department, which oversees the land management agency, said the final approval reduces the project’s drill pads by 40%.
The company also agreed to give up rights to about 68,000 acres in existing leases within the National Petroleum Reserve-alaska, where Willow is located.
The action reduces the project’s freshwater use and eliminates all infrastructure related to the two rejected drill sites, including approx- imately 11 miles of roads, 20 miles of pipelines and 133 acres of gravel, all of which reduces potential impacts to caribou migration and subsistence users, Interior said.
Extracting and using the oil from Willow would produce the equivalent of more than 278 million tons (306 million short tons) of green- house gases over the project’s 30-year life, roughly equal to the combined emissions from 2 million passenger cars over the same time period. It would have a roughly 2% reduction in emissions compared with Houston-based Conocophillips’ favored approach.
Support for Willow
There is widespread political support in Alaska, includ- ing from the bipartisan congressional delegation, Repub- lican Gov. Mike Dunleavy and state lawmakers.
There also is “majority consensus” in support in the North Slope region, said Nagruk Harcharek, president of the group Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, whose members include leaders from across much of that region.
Supporters have called the project balanced and say communities would benefit from taxes generated by Willow to invest in infrastructure and provide public services.
City of Nuiqsut Mayor Rose- mary Ahtuangaruak, whose community of about 525 peo- ple is closest to the proposed development, is a prominent opponent who is worried about the affect on caribou and her residents’ subsistence lifestyles.
But opposition there isn’t universal. The local Alaska Native village corporation has expressed support.
The politics of the decision
Biden’s decision pits Alaska lawmakers against environ- mental groups and many Democrats in Congress who say the project is out of step with his goals to slash planet-warming carbon emissions in half by 2030 and move to clean energy.
Environmentalists say approval of the project represents a betrayal by Biden, who promised during the 2020 campaign to end new oil and gas drilling on federal lands.
Biden has made fighting climate change a top prior- ity and backed a landmark law to accelerate expansion of clean energy such as wind and solar power and move the U.S. away from the oil, coal and gas.
He has faced attacks from Republican lawmakers who blame him for gasoline price spikes that occurred after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Greenhouse gas emissions
Federal officials under former President Donald Trump claimed increased domestic oil drilling would result in fewer net global emissions because it would decrease petroleum imports. U.S. companies adhere to stricter environmental standards than those in other countries, they argued.
After outside scientists rejected the claim and a federal judge agreed, the Interior Department changed how it calculates emissions.
The latest review, under the Biden administration, is getting pushback over its inclusion of a suggestion that 50% of Willow’s net emis- sions could be offset, includ- ing by planting more trees on national forests to capture and store carbon dioxide. Reforestation work on federal lands was something the administration already planned and needed to meet its broader climate goals, said Michael Lazarus, a senior scientist at the Stockholm Environment Institute.
“That doesn’t help you meet a reduction goal. It’s absurd,” said Lazarus, whose work was cited by the judge who overruled the Trumpera environmental review. “It doesn’t address the fact that we’re increasing global emissions by doing this project . ... We’re locking in emissions for 30 years into the future when we should be on a reduction schedule.”
Biden’s promise to curtail oil drilling
Biden suspended oil and gas lease sales after taking office and promised to over- haul the government’s fossil fuels program.
Attorneys general from oil-producing states per- suaded a federal judge to lift the suspension — a ruling later overturned by an appeals court. The administration ultimately dropped its resistance to leasing in a compromise over last year’s climate law. The measure requires the Interior Department to offer for sale tens of millions of acres of onshore and offshore leases before it can approve any renewable energy leases.
The number of new drilling permits to companies with federal leases spiked in Biden’s first year as companies stockpiled drilling rights and officials said they were working through a backlog of applications from the Trump administration. Approvals dropped sharply in fiscal year 2022.
Other actions the Biden administration is taking
On Sunday, a day before the Willow project was approved, Biden announced he will bar drilling in nearly 3 million acres of the Arctic Ocean and impose new protections in the petroleum reserve. The withdrawal of the offshore area ensures that important habitat for whales, seals, polar bears and other wildlife “will be protected in perpe- tuity from extractive development,” the White House said in a statement.