Large Alaska Oil Project To Be Approved by Biden On Monday

The Joe Biden administration will formally authorise the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska on Monday, according to two persons familiar with the decision despite strong resistance due to the project's potential effects on the environment and the climate.

In an apparent effort to quell criticism of the Willow decision and create a "firewall" to prevent future oil leases in the region, the president will also impose stringent limitations on offshore oil leasing in the Arctic Ocean and across Alaska's North Slope.

Additionally, new regulations to shield more than 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska from oil and gas leasing are anticipated by the Interior Department.

Nevertheless, the constraints are not expected to allay worries that the $8 billion Willow project, which is being spearheaded by the world's largest oil company ConocoPhillips, has the potential to produce more than 600 million barrels of crude over a 30-year period.

Almost 280 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions may be produced by burning all that oil.

That would result in 9.2 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions annually, which is the same as adding nearly two million new cars to the road.

The United States emits around 5.6 billion metric tonnes of carbon dioxide yearly, making it the second biggest polluter on the planet behind China.

The oil industry and Alaskan lawmakers have pushed the president hard to approve the Willow drilling project, which will take place inside the petroleum reserve.

Some proponents like labour organisations, the building trades, and some North Slope residents, have asserted that the project would generate up to $17 billion in income for the federal government and around 2,500 employees.

The proposal has also been opposed by environmentalists and certain Native American groups through internet campaigns, demonstrations, and meetings with government authorities.

They claim that approval of the project would betray Biden's promise to help the country transition away from fossil fuels.

Governments must stop licencing new oil, petrol, and coal projects, according to the International Energy Agency, if the world is to avoid the most disastrous effects of climate change.

ConocoPhillips representatives declined to comment until a formal decision had been made official and stated Sunday night that they haven't yet seen one.

Although praising the president's measures to protect the Arctic, climate activists expressed their indignation that Biden, who has made combating climate change a primary priority, would authorise a project they refer to as a "carbon bomb."

“It’s insulting that Biden thinks this will change our minds about the Willow project,” said Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group.

“Protecting one area of the Arctic so you can destroy another doesn’t make sense, and it won’t help the people and wildlife who will be upended by the Willow project.”

Environmental advocacy organisations will undoubtedly file legal challenges to the decision.

According to two people familiar with the decision who requested anonymity, because they weren't authorised to discuss it, the Biden administration intends to approve permits for three drilling sites and deny two others, including one that would have been closest to a coastal wetland known as Teshekpuk Lake.

The administration will also reject a road that would have led to the fourth drilling site according to the two persons.

A request for comment from the White House on the Willow decision received no response beyond a reference to Karine Jean-Friday Pierre's comments that a final decision hadn't been made.

Despite the Willow project's environmental review raising "serious concerns" about emissions, damage to freshwater sources, and hazards to migrating birds, caribou, whales, and other creatures that live in the area, administration officials are pressing through with the project.

The administration has determined that it lacks the legal authority to reject permits to ConocoPhillips, which has long had leases on the property in the petroleum reserve, according to the two people involved in the discussions.

ConocoPhillips initially requested five drilling locations for the project and stated that the approval of three pads was the bare minimum they would consider acceptable.

If there were fewer, the corporation had stated that it would abandon the project since it would no longer be financially viable.

According to the persons acquainted with the decision, the administration will also declare that ConocoPhillips will return around 67,000 acres of property to the government in addition to rejecting two of the proposed drilling locations.

The petroleum reserve is the largest single tract of undeveloped territory in the nation and is situated roughly 200 miles north of the Arctic Circle.

An announcement that the entire Arctic Ocean will be off-limits to oil and petrol leasing will serve as the cornerstone of Biden's new environmental commitments to the region, which he is expected to outline on Monday.

This will complete an initiative that was started under President Barack Obama.

The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which contains nearly 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean close to shore, will be permanently off-limits to any further oil and gas leasing, according to the Interior Department.

It would guarantee that “this important habitat for whales, seals, polar bears, as well as for subsistence purposes, will be protected in perpetuity from extractive development,” the Interior Department stated in a statement.

Using a 1953 legislation that grants presidents the power to halt the sale of offshore drilling and mining rights, Obama prohibited drilling in parts of the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas in the Arctic Ocean.

Afterwards, President Trump attempted to permit oil and gas production along the entire US coastline, including the Obama administration's protected regions.

The Interior Department will publish regulations to safeguard more than 13 million of the 23 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska from oil and gas leasing in addition to the moratorium on new Arctic drilling.

A variety of locations in Alaska, including Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon, and Peard Bay Special Areas, will also receive protections thanks to Biden's announcement.

Officials from the oil industry slammed the proposed Arctic measures.

“In the current energy crisis, the Biden administration should be focused on strengthening U.S. energy security and standing with the working families of Alaska by supporting the responsible development of federal lands and waters — not acting to restrict it,” said Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy at the American Petroleum Institute, a trade organization.