(C) Common Dreams
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Biden Administration Approves Huge Alaska Oil Project [1]
['Lisa Friedman']
Date: 2023-03-12
Approval of the Willow project marks a turning point in the administration’s approach to fossil fuel development. The courts and Congress have forced Mr. Biden to back away from his campaign pledge of “no more drilling on federal lands, period” and sign off on some limited oil and gas leases. Willow would be one of the few oil projects that Mr. Biden has approved freely, without a court or a congressional mandate.
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Climate activists said that they were pleased the president plans to protect the Arctic but remained outraged that Mr. Biden would approve a project they term a “carbon bomb.”
“It’s insulting that Biden thinks this will change our minds about the Willow project,” said Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental group. “Protecting one area of the Arctic so you can destroy another doesn’t make sense, and it won’t help the people and wildlife who will be upended by the Willow project.”
The decision is sure to invite legal challenges from environmental groups.
“The Biden administration appears to be considering tinkering at the margins,” said Abigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, an environmental group. “That won’t remedy legal failures to address this project’s outside harms and we expect to see them in court if Willow is approved.”
The administration said it would approve permits for three drilling sites and deny two others, including one that would have been closest to a coastal wetland known as Teshekpuk Lake. The administration also said it would deny permission to build a road that would have led to the fourth drilling site.
ConocoPhillips had initially sought five drilling sites for the project and said it needed at least three to make the project financially viable.
In addition to rejecting two of the proposed drilling sites, the administration also announced that ConocoPhillips would return about 68,000 acres of existing leases to the government. Officials said they believe that would prevent the company from trying to expand oil drilling in the region beyond the Willow project.
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[1] Url:
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/03/12/climate/biden-willow-arctic-drilling-restrictions.html
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