Biden administration recommends major Alaska oil project

The Biden administration released along-awaited study Wednesday that recommends allowing a major oildevelopment on Alaska's North Slope that supporters say could boostU.S. energy security but that climate activists decry as a "carbonbomb."

The move while not final drew immediate anger fromenvironmentalists who saw it as a betrayal of the president's pledges to reduce carbon emissions and promote clean energy sources.

ConocoPhillips Alaska had proposed five drilling sites as part ofits Willow project, and the approach listed as the preferredalternative by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in the reportcalls for up to three drill sites initially. Even as the land agencyreleased its report, the U.S. Interior Department said in a separatestatement that it has "substantial concerns" about the project andthe report's preferred alternative, "including direct and indirectgreenhouse gas emissions and impacts to wildlife and Alaska Nativesubsistence."

The Bureau of Land Management, which falls under the InteriorDepartment, also said in the report that identifying a preferredalternative "does not constitute a commitment or decision" andnotes it could select a different alternative in the final decision.

Opponents have raised concerns about the impacts of oildevelopment on wildlife, such as caribou, and efforts to addressclimate change.

Indigenous supporters, and detractors

The project is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a vastregion roughly the size of Indiana on Alaska's resource-rich NorthSlope. ConocoPhillips Alaska says the project, at its peak, couldproduce an estimated 180,000 barrels of oil a day.

The Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, an Alaska Nativecorporation, and the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope joinedthe North Slope Borough in praising the proposed alternative andcalling on the administration to move ahead on the project. In ajoint statement, they said advancing the project "is critical fordomestic energy independence, job security for Alaskans and theright of Alaska Natives to choose their own path."

Other Alaska Native groups have expressed concerns.

Leaders of the Native Village of Nuiqsut and city of Nuiqsut in arecent letter said they do not feel like the Bureau of Land Management is listening. The community is about 60kilometresfrom the Willow project, in a remote regionofAlaska'sfar north.

The Bureau of Land Management's "engagement with us isconsistently focused on how to allow projects to go forward; how topermit the continuous expansion and concentration of oil and gasactivity on our traditional lands," Native Village of NuiqsutPresident Eunice Brower and City of Nuiqsut Mayor RosemaryAhtuangaruak wrote in a letter dated last week.

Hundreds of jobs,billions in revenue

ConocoPhillips has estimated the project would create as many as2,000 jobs during construction and 300 permanent jobs and generatebetween $8 billion and $17 billion in federal, state and localrevenue in an area nearly 1,000 kilometresfromAnchorage.

Erec Isaacson, the president of ConocoPhillips Alaska, said in astatement the company believes the project will "benefit localcommunities and enhance American energy security while producing oilin an environmentally and socially responsible manner." He said thereview process "should be concluded without delay."

The members of Alaska's congressional delegation RepublicanSens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and Rep. Mary Peltola, aDemocrat all said they welcomed Wednesday's environmental reviewand urged the administration to allow the project to move forward.

The project would bring miles of roads and hundreds of miles ofpipeline to the area, disrupt animal migration patternsand erodehabitat if it goes forward, said Earthjustice, an environmentalgroup.

Jeremy Lieb, an attorney with the group, said Willow is currentlythe largest proposed oil project in the U.S. He said it is "drastically out of step with the Biden administration's goals toslash climate pollution and transition to clean energy." PresidentJoe Biden campaigned on pledges to end new drilling on public landsand has set an ambitious goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions inhalf by 2030.

Biden "will be remembered for what he did to tackle the climatecrisis, and as things stand today, it's not too late for him to stepup and pull the plug on this carbon bomb," Lieb said.

Final decision in March

U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, who fought the Willowproject as a member of Congress, has the final decision on whetherto approve it, although top White House climate officials are likelyto be involved. Haaland has multiple options, including outrightapproval or rejection or a middle ground that allows some drillingbut blocks other development. A final decision is expected no soonerthan early March.

Federal agencies have within the last week made two majordecisions around resources in Alaska. Last week, the U.S. Departmentof Agriculture said it was reinstating restrictions on road-buildingand logging on the country's largest national forest in southeastAlaska, the Tongass National Forest.

And on Tuesday, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said itwas exercising its so-called veto authority under the federal CleanWater Act to block plans for a proposed copper and gold mine in amineral-rich area of southwest Alaska because of concerns about itsenvironmental impact on a rich Alaska aquatic ecosystem thatsupports the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery.