Biden administration approves development of Alaska's Willow oil project

Mar. 13—The Biden administration on Monday approved a massive oil development project on Alaska's North Slope, and said it is adding new environmental protections to limit future oil development in several areas of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

ConocoPhillips' $8 billion Willow prospect in the Indiana-size reserve is expected to be one of the largest oil fields developed in Alaska in decades. It would produce oil for three decades, including 180,000 barrels of oil daily at its peak.

The administration approved three drill sites, which ConocoPhillips has said is economically viable. The approval is a reduction of the five drill sites that ConocoPhillips had originally sought, though the company said Monday that it's pleased with the approval.

The White House's decision bucked intense pressure from environmental groups, which have called the project a "carbon bomb" and said it contradicts President Joe Biden's goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

Many Alaska Native leaders, politicians and business groups have lobbied intensely for approval of the field, saying it would provide badly needed revenues to support North Slope villages and help Alaska's struggling economy — though the mayor of the Inupiaq village closest to the project had opposed it.

ConocoPhillips said Monday it expects to immediately begin building gravel roads to launch development. The company is also reviewing the 124-page decision from the Interior Department and internally will take steps toward making a final investment decision in the project.

"This was the right decision for Alaska and our nation," said Ryan Lance, ConocoPhillips chief executive. "Willow fits within the Biden Administration's priorities on environmental and social justice, facilitating the energy transition and enhancing our energy security, all while creating good union jobs and providing benefits to Alaska Native communities."

The decision on Willow comes a day after the Biden administration announced it will limit oil drilling on 16 million acres in the NPR-A and the Arctic Ocean in an apparent nod to environmental groups that have fought the project.

Oil and gas development in the remote reserve has been limited to the northeastern corner. With many specific details of the administration's plan uncertain, it was difficult to know on Monday how the additional protections will impact any future development plans.

Conservation groups said while they were pleased to see additional protections to limit drilling in the region, Biden's approval of Willow overshadowed those environmental gains.

They said they plan to fight the decision.

"We regret that (the protections) were immediately followed by the profoundly disappointing decision to approve the Willow project, which will accelerate climate change and harm local Indigenous communities," said Karlin Itchoak of The Wilderness Society. "We will continue to fight this project with all means at our disposal."

Kristen Miller, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said her organization will continue to resist the project. "We will keep fighting the Willow project and future projects like it. And we call on the administration to change the way we manage all our nation's public lands for climate, starting with America's Arctic."

[Days before an expected decision on Willow, opposition to the Alaska oil project surges on TikTok]

Alaska's congressional delegation said during a call with reporters Monday morning that the decision was a landmark moment and a critical step that will boost state revenue by billions of dollars, create more than 2,000 jobs and help the state's long-struggling economy recover. The project is the largest oil project in Alaska in more than two decades, and is expected to significantly boost the long-flagging oil production that provides much of the state's income.

"We finally did it, Willow is finally reapproved, and we can almost literally feel Alaska's future brightening because of it," Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski said.

The decision is "critically important" for Alaska's economy, good-paying jobs for our families, and the future prosperity of our state," said Sen. Dan Sullivan, also a Republican. "This decision is also crucial for our national security and environment."

"Today, the people of Alaska were heard," said Rep. Mary Peltola, a Democrat. "After years of consistent, determined advocacy for this project, from people all across the state and from every walk of life, the Willow Project is finally moving forward."

They said they expect environmental groups to immediately file a request in federal court to halt the project. They said the compromises that have led to a smaller project will be a factor that will help protect the project in court.

"This is going to be the next hurdle, and it's going to be a big battle, and it's probably going to happen any day," Sullivan said.

Dawnell Smith with Trustees of Alaska, said the legally focused conservation group sees litigation as imminent.

"The project will, without question, reduce access to food and cultural practices for local communities and pump out massive amounts of greenhouse gases that drive continued climate devastation in the Arctic and world," Smith said.

Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy said while he was pleased to see the approval of the project but disappointed by the plans to restrict future oil and gas development associated with the reserve.

"It's disgraceful that the Biden administration thinks that this is a compromise that will benefit America," Dunleavy said. "Taking future oil production in Alaska off the map won't decrease global oil consumption. It will just shift the market and give leverage to producers in countries that don't have our high standards for the environment and human rights."

The Voice of the Arctic Inupiat, representing several Inupiat organizations from the region that support Willow, said the project is important for Alaska Native self-determination and will help villages continue to support traditional activities such as whaling.

The group said the project will create jobs and contracting opportunities for Native-owned businesses, help boost property tax revenue to the eight-village North Slope Borough by more than $1 billion, and add about $2.5 billion to a fund that helps pay for village projects and programs.

"The Biden administration's (decision) to advance the Willow Project will make it possible for our community to continue our traditions while strengthening the economic foundation of our region for decades to come," the statement said.

[Alaska Native supporters of Willow oil project push for approval in D.C.]

The Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, Iñupiat Community of the Arctic Slope and the North Slope Borough said in a joint statement the decision recognizes that Willow "represents a new opportunity to ensure our Indigenous, Alaska Native communities' ten thousand years of history has a viable future."

Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, an organization opposed to Willow, said the decision locks in oil exploration in the reserve for decades, and sets the stage for increased climate impacts and health issues for local people, including by hurting access to subsistence foods.

"The Biden administration's approval makes it clear that its call for climate action and the protection of biodiversity is talk, not action," said Sonia Ahkivgak, the group's social outreach coordinator. "Our fight has been long and also it has only begun. We will continue to call for a stop to Willow because the lives of local people and future generations depend on it."

The Interior Department said in a statement Monday that by allowing the development of three drill sites instead of five, nearly a dozen miles of roads and about 20 miles of pipeline are eliminated, reducing impacts to caribou migration and subsistence users.

ConocoPhillips has also agreed to relinquish nearly 70,000 acres of leases held in the same unit where the Willow project is located, the statement said. That will shrink the size of the unit by one-third, reducing the project's freshwater use and scaling back the project within the constraints of valid existing rights under ConocoPhillips' decades-old leases, Interior's statement said.

The administration's actions will also create an additional buffer from exploration and development activities near calving grounds and migratory routes for the Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd, an important subsistence resource for nearby Alaska Native communities, Interior said in the statement.

The Interior Department said it will launch a rulemaking process to achieve maximum protection for five special areas encompassing more than half of the reserve, including the Teshekpuk Lake special area. It will also take action to designate nearly 3 million acres in the Beaufort Sea near the reserve as indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing, to protect habitat for whales, seals, polar bears and subsistence hunters.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.