What is the Willow Project?

President Joe Biden approves a huge $8 billion plan to extract over 600 million oil barrels on Alaska’s federal land, when we last heard he was hindering away from fossil fuels…

An exploratory drilling camp at the proposed site of the Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope.

Petroleum Oil comes from a drill hole that bores the earth’s surface which releases natural gases and the hydrocarbons itself. Now what do we get out of this? Diesel fuel, Jet fuel, propane and some oils like heating oil. But what does that do to our planet?

Willow approval expected next week, Bloomberg and CNN reports | Juneau Empire

Northern Alaska where the National Petroleum Reserve was established in 1923 has many efforts to balance the economy and the environment of the land. Their mission statement says

¨Improving the health of communities for all people through parks, recreation and conservation.¨

operations in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. | Judy Patrick/AP Photo

ConocoPhillips is a huge worldwide company that specializes in mass marketing petroleum projects on independent exploration lands. They proposed the Willow Project back in May of 2018 to develop the red shaded area labeled ¨ Willow Project area ¨. This got shut down by the US district court in Alaska. Fast forward to present day March 1st where after months of fighting for approval from the interior (BLM & SEIS) the project was granted the go. March 13th Biden’s approval sets the project finally in motion.

A polar bear plays in the water after feasting on the remains of a bowhead whale, harvested legally by whalers during their annual subsistence hunt, just outside the Inupiat village of Kaktovik, Alaska, in 2017. (Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA-EFE)

¨By the administration’s own estimates, the project would generate enough oil to release 9.2 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon pollution a year – equivalent to adding 2 million gas-powered cars to the roads.¨

The Arctic National Wildlife Reserve: Save the Caribou – Debating Science

With concerns about the fast warming arctic increasing many activist groups are concerned that the project could destroy many natives species natural habitats. The many forms of pollution that the project provides will disturb and destroy the ecosystems of natives as well as the already vulnerable caribou populations. This project drastically sets back our transitions to clean energy for our future. Look into solar for industrial buildings to get an idea.

**Climate activists gathered in protest on January 10, 2023, in Washington D.C., to demand President Biden stop the Willow Project. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)**

In Joe Biden’s campaign in 2020 he vowed to end new oil and gas drilling on public land as well as the waters. He went through releasing this statement because it was executive ordered. When the hold on this project was removed by the federal judge in 2021 Biden took advantage and opened multiple areas for petroleum to be pumped out of the earth. Breaking his initial campaign promise to the country. Many environmental groups have taken these new pumping places to court but their biggest challenge and push for is this destructive Willow Project.

So what can we do?