Biden administration’s support of the Alaska ConocoPhillips’ oil drilling project Wednesday attracted bitter criticism and condemning from environmental groups previously encouraged by Biden’s signing of the order to rejoin the Paris Accord and revoking federal permits for the Keystone XL oil pipeline, Reuters reports.
John Noel, a senior climate campaigner with Greenpeace USA, told Reuters tt is a serious misstep to pass on administrative authority to constrain an out-of-control oil industry while simultaneously punting to a deadlocked Congress for climate action.
The appeals court blocked construction of ConocoPhillips’ $ Willow crude oil project in Alaska, that has been pushed by Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, in February, but Biden administration backed the project in a court filing on Wednesday.
Gregory Stewart, legal chair of the executive committee of the Alaska chapter of the Sierra Club, warned that they are opening up a lane for the oil and gas industry to cause irreparable harm to Arctic communities’ public health and wildlife habitats.
According to the environment group Earthjustice, the oil drilling project is at odds with Biden’s historic climate leadership with the Alaska Wilderness League claiming the decision ignored the concerns of indigenous communities.
The Willow project consists of five wells that could produce up to 160,000 barrels of oil a day and would be one of the first major new oil projects in Alaska in years. The development will consist of new gravel mine, airstrip, more than 570 miles of ice roads and nearly 320 miles of pipeline.
Interior Department defended the Trump administration’s October 2020 decision to allow the Willow project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska despite Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s opposition last year when she was a member of Congress and against environmental advocacy groups’ allegations that the project’s environmental impacts haven’t been adequately assessed by the Interior.
Biden administration argued those challenging in a court filing late Wednesday.
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