US approves controversial Willow oil drilling project in Alaska

On March 13, the US government approved an $8 billion oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, known as the Willow Project and led by oil giant ConocoPhillips. It gives the green light to one of the largest oil fields ever built on US federal land and opens the door to decades of drilling in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, a critical habitat for caribou and migratory birds.

The solution allows for the construction of three drilling sites, as well as hundreds of miles of roads, pipelines, airstrips, gravel mines and processing plants in what is now tundra and wetlands. The plan involves drilling through the permafrost, which would require re-freezing the ground through a system of cooling pipes to keep it frozen and the equipment stable.

The three approved drilling sites can produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day, or about 1.5% of US oil production. Critics warn that the project will also accelerate the climate crisis. The US government’s own estimate is that it will generate 9.2 million tons of carbon pollution per year, the equivalent of 2 million gas-powered vehicles. According to external estimates, this is about 260 million tons, which is equivalent to the operation of almost 70 coal-fired power plants per year.

The project sparked a heated debate, which was opposed by local Alaska Native communities who said their health and food security had already been damaged by existing oil and gas production. “We are at the epicenter of industrialization in the Arctic,” reads an open letter written by residents of Nuiqsut, a city 56 kilometers from the approved drilling site. In this region, temperatures are rising two to four times faster than in the rest of the planet. “Not one dollar can replace what we risk.”

In February of this year, at the end of a long environmental review, the US Bureau of Land Management identified three drilling sites, rather than the five originally planned by ConocoPhillips. However, the US Department of the Interior, which oversees the agency, issued a separate statement with “substantial concerns” about the project – a highly unusual move. Deb Haaland, US Secretary of the Interior, declined to comment on Willow, but said in a recent interview that “public lands belong to every American, not just one industry.”

“The agency claims they have approved a smaller project that will have less impact. It’s just not true,” says Bridget Psarianos of the nonprofit Trustees for Alaska. “The Department of the Interior’s decision to grant ConocoPhillips permits for an oil and gas project further demonstrates how agencies and corporations are ignoring the costs of industrialization to land, water, animals and people.”

“The real cost of the Iva project is the land, animals and people forced to breathe polluted air and drink polluted water,” Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic wrote. For decades, the National Audubon Society has designated the Willow Project Area as critical for millions of migratory birds, including the endangered Spectacled Eider (Somateria fish) and other vulnerable birds. It is also a calving place for local caribou herds (Rangifer tarandus), whose population has been greatly reduced in recent years. Drilling will divide this habitat, increasing noise, air pollution and human movement. Last March, a methane release from another ConocoPhillips drilling site forced the evacuation of 500 people from Nuiqsut, where people say they fell ill due to industrial pollution.

When running for president, Joe Biden promised to ban all “new oil and gas permits on public land and waters” to achieve climate goals. In recent weeks, young activists have highlighted these campaign promises and commitments to the Paris Agreement in the #StopWillow online campaign.

On March 12, the Biden administration announced that the US would grant protection to the Arctic Ocean and other areas of the reserve. Conservation organizations such as The Wilderness Society called the measures “good news” but added, “we regret that they were immediately followed by the highly disappointing decision to approve the Willow project.”