Climate Corner: The Willow Project

The Willow Project is an oil exploration and drilling project headed by the company ConocoPhillips, which has been recently approved by President Biden. It opens up the North Slope in Alaska for a new drilling project—the largest in decades. The project is steeped in controversy, both from within Alaska and outside of it. Social media such as TikTok has garnered a huge wave of opposition, #StopWillow gained more than 500 million views, and a Change.org petition received nearly three million signatures. Some have argued it has the potential to massively set back fossil fuel reduction efforts and perhaps irreparably harm the United States climate goal of being a net-zero climate change contributor by 2050. Critics also argue this project could affect everyone on a global scale and have an even greater impact on those living within Alaska with its natural and protected wildlife. In this post, we’ll explain what the Willow Project is, taking a brief look at arguments for and against the project, and the potential impact this oil drilling could have on climate change and local ecosystems. 

What Is The Willow Project?

As stated before, the Willow Project is an oil drilling project under the oil company ConocoPhillips. It was approved by President Biden on March 13, 2023. It needed such high federal permission as it opens drilling on Alaska’s North Slope, which is within the National Petroleum Reserve, currently the largest undisturbed stretch of public land in the United States. It requires the creation of approximately two hundred new oil wells across three drilling sites (already downsized from the original plan of five drilling sites). The oilfield in question contains about six hundred million oil barrels worth of oil, though due to the amount of construction needed it will be years before any of this is able to enter the market. The current plan allows for approximately 180,000 barrels of oil to be produced per day. This makes it the largest oil drilling site in Alaska in over twenty years. It sits only about two hundred miles west of currently operating oilfields in the Prudhoe Bay, Alaska—which is currently the largest oilfield in the United States, producing 281,800 barrels of oil a day.

The Growing Controversy: For and Against Willow 

While the project has been in the approval process for years, it is only in recent weeks that the uproar was sparked across social media as it neared the final stages. However, there is also strong support for the project across platforms. All three Alaskan representatives show bipartisan support of the project, citing the jobs it will create and the revenue the new oil production will produce. Currently, according to the Bureau of Land Management, the project has the potential to bring in one thousand construction jobs and four hundred permanent jobs alongside an estimated $7 billion to $18 billion dollars in revenue. Alaska currently relies on oil production for about one-third of its annual budget, including the income that allows the state to provide an annual dividend to its residents to offset the expenses of living in the northern state. Additionally, there are several Alaskan Native individuals and groups that also support the development of the Willow Project. Nagruk Harcharek, president of Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat states that, “The Willow Project is a new opportunity to ensure a viable future for our communities, creating generational economic stability for our people and advancing our self-determination.” 

In contrast, the project’s approval has also sparked national protest on a massive scale. In the weeks leading up to the project’s ultimate approval, over one million letters were sent to the White House urging the President to deny the project, and social media videos and posts discussing the project accumulated millions of views and interactions. Alaska Natives living closer to the actual project site also voiced dissent against the project. City officials and tribal members in the city of Nuiqsut, a town of five hundred people about thirty miles from the project site, have expressed worry over the environmental and health impacts of such major oil drilling infrastructure, specifically citing the potential for chemical leaks. In a letter to the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a small coalition of tribal and city officials including Mayor Rosemary Ahtuangaruak of Nuiqsut wrote that while other villages may see the benefits of the project, they see far fewer of the consequences, concluding, “We are at ground zero for the industrialization of the Arctic.” 

Since its approval, environmental advocacy groups have already begun building legal cases against the project, including Earthjustice, an environmental law group, arguing that Biden’s authority and responsibility to protect Alaska’s public lands includes making efforts to reduce global warming contributors such as greenhouse gasses, which they state the Willow Project would only increase. Several other groups and senators from other states have also voiced their disapproval and disappointment in the decision, such as New Mexico Democrat Sen. Martin Heinrich who warns, “Industrial development in this unspoiled landscape will not age well.” 

Potential Impacts

What exactly could the approval of the Willow Project mean for the environment? One of the most notable consequences, stated by the Biden administration’s estimates, is that the oil produced would be enough to generate 9.2 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, or the equivalent of putting two million cars back on the road. This number also fails to take into account the greenhouse gasses produced via the construction and execution of the drill pads. This decision has been condemned as stepping back on the administration’s promises to get the United States to a net-zero climate contributor by 2050, and to cut climate pollution in half by 2030. Some protests claim it will cause irreparable damage to the United States’ efforts, and that the damage done by this project will make these goals unreachable. There have been further concerns raised about the project’s effects on various animal migrations, such as caribou, polar bears, and migratory birds. 

Future Protections for the Arctic

At the same time the Willow Project was approved, a series of further projections for Alaska and Arctic land were announced, perhaps to counter any environmental damages from the oil drilling. The White House has formally made Arctic Ocean waters under US control inaccessible for future oil and gas leasing. There was also the announcement that the administration plans to later unveil regulations to protect upwards of 13 million acres of land within the National Petroleum Reserve (the same swath of public lands in which the Willow Project is taking place). These regulations will extend to protect lands that are important for grizzly bears, caribou, polar bears, and migratory birds. The administration has explained that these protections are meant to act as a “firewall” against further fossil fuel leasing and the expansion of existing North Slope projects. 

Conclusion

The Willow Project has sparked controversy across the nation, especially in the wake of its recent approval. Conversations are split between the potential economic benefits and dire environmental consequences the nation and the globe could face if the project moves forward. The project has already been adapted from its original proposal of five drill pads to three, and has also been paired with sweeping environmental protections as a way of attempting to soften these potential consequences. As environmental groups move forward with legal action and protest continues, the final project implemented may look even further removed from its original blueprint.

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References:

Today, Trevor Hughes Usa. “Alaska Oil Drilling: Willow Project Critics Go Viral With Petition Pressuring Biden.” USA TODAY, 14 Mar. 2023, www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/03/08/what-willow-project-alaska-oil-drilling-faces-viral-petition/11429500002.

Washington, By Esme Stallard Climate and Science &. Grace Conley. “TikTokers Target Controversial Willow Oil Project.” BBC News, 10 Mar. 2023, www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-64906323.

CNN, Ella Nilsen. “What to Know About the Controversial Willow Oil Drilling Project in Alaska.” CNN, 7 Mar. 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/03/07/politics/willow-project-alaska-oil-explained-climate/index.html.

CNN, Ella Nilsen. “Biden Administration Approves Controversial Willow Oil Project in Alaska, Which  Has Galvanized Online Activism.” CNN, 14 Mar. 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/03/13/politics/willow-project-alaska-oil-biden-approval-climate/index.html.

Victoria Hughes. “The Biden Administration Just Approved a Huge Oil Project in Alaska.” High Country News, 14. Mar. 2023, www.hcn.org/articles/the-biden-administration-just-approved-a-huge-oil-project-in-alaska