US to drill for oil in Alaska as Biden OKs $8B Willow Project, 180K barrels a day
The Biden administration on Monday approved a massive oil drilling project in Alaska that is sure to put the president on a collision course with far-left factions of his Democratic Party.
The Willow Project has come under fire from environmental groups, who are already accusing President Biden of reneging on campaign promises to battle climate change and end drilling on public lands.
Some Republicans, meanwhile, lauded the move by Team Biden to finally do something to offset the rising cost of gasoline and start to make the US energy-independent.
Under the plan announced by the Department of the Interior, Houston-based ConocoPhillips can drill at three sites on Alaska’s North Slope — about 219 wells in all — but the federal agency denied the company’s proposal for another two sites.
ConocoPhillips, which is seeking to develop oil and gas leases it purchased in the 1990s, will also have to give up rights to about 68,000 acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
The $8 billion Willow Project, according to the company, could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day and create as many as 1,800 jobs during construction and 300 long-term jobs, as well as generating billions of dollars in royalties and tax revenues for the state and federal government.
While the project enjoyed widespread support in Alaska, it has been the subject of an aggressive social media campaign by environmental groups.
The Biden administration has also been under increasing political pressure to ramp up domestic energy production after historic highs in gasoline prices.
The Natural Resources Defense Counsel said in a Twitter posting that it would continue to fight against the project.
”It’ll escalate the climate crisis and lock us into decades of dependence on Big Oil executives hell-bent on destroying the planet. The fight isn’t over and we will consider every tool available to stop this climate bomb,” the organization said.
Sierra Club executive director Ben Jealous said in a statement that by giving the Willow Project the green light, the Biden administration has “made it almost impossible to achieve the climate goals they set for public lands.”
The environmental group also addressed the administration’s attempt on Sunday to offset the blowback it would receive for approving the ConocoPhillips plan by preventing or limiting oil drilling in 16 million acres in Alaska and the Arctic Ocean.
“While we celebrate the administration’s unparalleled protections for Alaskan landscapes and waters, the decision to approve the Willow Project may very well wipe out many of these climate and ecological benefits,” Jealous said.
“And by approving one of the largest oil and gas extraction projects on federal public lands, one must ask the question what the Biden administration has in store for the Arctic Refuge,” he said.
Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) called the Willow Project “critically important” to the state’s economy and national security.
“Producing much-needed American energy in Alaska with the world’s highest environmental standards and lowest emissions enhances the global environment,” Sullivan said in a statement.
Alaska’s other GOP senator, Lisa Murkowski, said approval of the project is a “huge and needed victory for all Alaska.”
”This project will produce lasting economic and security benefits for our state and the nation,” she said on Twitter.
With Post wires