The Biden administration released a long-awaited study Wednesday that recommends allowing massive oil development on Alaska’s North Slope that supporters say could boost U.S. energy security but climate activists decry as a “carbon bomb.”
The move — though not final — drew immediate ire from environmentalists who saw it as a betrayal of the president’s promises to cut carbon emissions and promote clean energy sources.
ConocoPhillips Alaska had proposed five drilling sites as part of its Willow project, and the approach listed as the preferred option by the US Bureau of Land Management in the report calls for three drill sites initially. Although the Land Agency released its report, the U.S. Department of the Interior said in a separate statement that it had “substantial concerns” about the project and the report’s preferred options, “including direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on wildlife and Alaska Native livelihoods.”
The Bureau of Land Management, which falls under the Department of the Interior, also said in the report that identifying a preferred option “does not constitute a commitment or decision” and notes that it may choose a different option in a final decision.
Opponents have raised concerns about the impact of oil development on wildlife such as caribou and efforts to address climate change.
The project is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a vast area the size of Indiana on the resource-rich North Slope of Alaska. ConocoPhillips Alaska says the project is at its peak and could produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day.
The Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, an Alaska Native corporation, and the Iñupiat community of the Arctic Slope joined the North Slope Borough in praising the proposed alternative and calling on the administration to move forward with the project. In a joint statement, they said advancing the project is “critical to domestic energy independence, job security for Alaskans and the right of Alaska Natives to choose their own path.”
Other Alaska Native groups have expressed concern.
Nuiksut Native Village and Nuiksut City leaders said in a recent letter that they don’t feel the Bureau of Land Management is listening. The community is about 36 miles (58 km) from the Willow Project in a remote area of Alaska’s far north.
The Bureau of Land Management’s “engagement with us is focused on how to continue to allow projects to move forward; how to allow continued expansion and concentration of oil and gas activity on our traditional lands,” Nuiksut Native Village President Eunice Brower and Nuiksut City Mayor Rosemary Ahtuangaruk wrote in a letter last week. .
ConocoPhillips estimates the project will create 2,000 jobs and 300 permanent jobs during construction and generate between $8 billion and $17 billion in federal, state and local revenue in an area more than 600 miles (965 km) from Anchorage.
Eric Isaacson, president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, said in a statement that the company said the project will “enhance American energy security while benefiting local communities and producing oil in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.” He said the review process “must be concluded without delay.”
Members of Alaska’s congressional delegation — Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat — all said they welcomed Wednesday’s environmental review and urged the administration to allow the project to move forward.
The project would bring miles of road and hundreds of miles of pipeline to the region, disrupt animal migration patterns and destroy habitat if it goes ahead, said Arthanyas, an environmental group.
Jeremy Lieb, an attorney for the group, said Willow is currently the largest proposed oil project in the U.S., saying it is “grossly out of step with the Biden administration’s goals of reducing climate pollution and transitioning to clean energy.” President Joe Biden campaigned on a promise to end new drilling on public lands and has an ambitious goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.
Biden “will be remembered for what he did to address the climate crisis, and as things stand today, it’s not too late for him to pull the plug on this carbon bomb,” Lieb said.
U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Hollande, who fought the Willow project as a member of Congress, has the final say on whether to approve it, though top White House climate officials are likely to be involved. Haaland has several options, a complete approval or rejection or a middle ground that allows some drilling but blocks other development. A final decision is expected as early as early March.
Federal agencies have made two major decisions surrounding resources in Alaska within the past week. Last week, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said it was reinstating restrictions on road construction and logging in the Tongass National Forest, the nation’s largest national forest in southeast Alaska.
And on Tuesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said it would use its so-called veto authority under the federal Clean Water Act to block proposed copper and gold mining plans in a mineral-rich region of southwest Alaska because of its environmental concerns. Impact on the rich Alaskan aquatic ecosystem that supports the world’s largest Sockeye salmon fishery.