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“The Biden administration is approving a scaled-back version of ConocoPhillips' $7 billion oil and gas drilling Willow project in Alaska, the U.S. Department of Interior said on Monday, drawing cheers from Alaskan officials and the oil industry but criticism from environmental advocates.” Reuters
The right praises the approval, arguing that it is unrealistic to expect dramatic reductions in oil use.
“U.S. oil has better environmental standards and a lower carbon footprint than oil from other countries. A barrel of crude U.S. oil will emit 89 kilograms of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which is lower than the global average of 95 kilograms, according to the Brookings Institution. Therefore, the U.S. can cut its carbon emissions by using domestic oil rather than importing it from people who hate us…
“The Earth is warming, and humans contribute to the problem. Reducing emissions where economically feasible is a good idea. However, the U.S. needs oil. Millions of people drive gas-powered cars, and commerce depends on a trucking industry powered by gasoline…
“Although climate change is real, the alarmists have greatly exaggerated its threat, and climate-related deaths have decreased as the world has industrialized. Focusing on climate resilience is a more pragmatic way to save lives than cratering [the] economy with a Green New Deal.”
Tom Joyce, Washington Examiner
“Congress should be setting policy on North Slope oil, offshore drilling, and land use. It’s Congress’s job to do it, but they’ve long outsourced that authority… The president may merely use a pen and a phone to change policy regarding 28% of the real estate in America, worth somewhere north of $2 trillion, without adding in mineral rights. Congress designates land for national parks and other purposes, but the executive branch has way too much authority over land use, especially oil land.”
Steve Berman, Racket News“
“Just hours before it approved the Willow project, the Biden administration also announced further restrictions on oil drilling in Alaska. The measures will block or restrict drilling in 16 million acres in Alaska and the Arctic Ocean… If these sound like mixed messages, then that’s because they’re intended to be. The announcements are a pretty transparent maneuver to blunt criticism of Biden for backtracking on a key campaign promise: blocking any new oil and gas drilling on public land. ..
“But as divisive as Willow may be in Washington, support for the project is much more widespread in Alaska itself, where Republicans, Democrats, indigenous groups, and labor unions have all pushed for its approval. Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan are both supporters of the Willow project, as is the state’s recently elected Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola… Indigenous groups on the North Slope also favor the development, citing the new jobs and increased tax revenue it will bring.”
Declan Garvey, Esther Eaton, Mary Trimble and Grayson Logue, The Dispatch
The left criticizes the approval, arguing that the project will negatively impact both the local and global environments.
The left criticizes the approval, arguing that the project will negatively impact both the local and global environments.
“Local support for the Willow project is hardly unanimous… Rosemary Ahtuangaruak—mayor of the 525-person city closest to the Willow project, Nuiqsut—has been an outspoken critic. ‘Our people feed their families with traditional subsistence activities like fishing and hunting caribou, moose, birds, and more,’ she wrote last November…
“‘The Willow project’s massive infrastructure would bulldoze straight through these crucial habitats, redirecting the animals’ migratory paths, moving them away from nearby villages, and endangering the food security of local people. That’s not to mention the damage from exposure to air and water pollution that we face.’… [At its peak, the project will release] emissions equivalent to those of a third of the U.S. fleet of coal-fired power plants.”
Kate Aronoff, New Republic
“‘The true cost of the Willow project is to the land and to animals and people forced to breathe polluted air and drink polluted water,’ said a statement from Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, an Indigenous grassroots group. ‘While out-of-state executives take in record profits, local residents are left to contend with the detrimental impacts of being surrounded by massive drilling operations.’…
“The world already has too much oil and can’t afford more if it has any hope to tackle runaway global warming. ‘No new oil and natural gas fields are needed’ if we’re to reach net zero emissions by 2050, declared a 2021 report by the International Energy Agency — not exactly a radical climate group. The Willow project takes us in the opposite direction.”
Rebecca Leber, Vox
“‘This immoral decision will have devastating impacts on the livelihood of the people of Nuiqsut and beyond.’ Just last year, a monthlong natural gas leak from Conoco’s oil drilling near Nuiqsut, Alaska, prompted hundreds of people to evacuate. Now the company is marching back into the area for an enormously wider mission.”
Prem Thakker, New Republic
Rep. Mary Peltola (D-AK) writes, “We can’t flip a switch and power our ATVs, boats, and planes with electric batteries overnight… We need a plan for a real transition [to renewable energy] that does not leave our most vulnerable people freezing in the winter in places like Noatak, Alaska, where stove oil costs $15.31 a gallon and can cause heating bills in the thousands per month. We need a plan that doesn’t leave them hungry when they cannot drive out on ATVs or snowmachines to hunt because unleaded fuel is $14.49 a gallon. We need a middle ground. We need a bridge to fill the gap.”
Rep. Mary Peltola, The Hill
