Despite Biden’s promises to be climate-conscious, the Biden administration approved the Willow project, a plan to mine an estimated 576 million barrels of oil in Alaska over the course of 30 years. This could have devastating effects on the environment in both Alaska and the Earth.

This project is predicted to cost between 8 and 10 billion dollars, and the oil mined would release an 239 million tons of CO2. The region selected for the project is almost 500 acres in size, and is a habitat for polar bears and thousands of migrating caribou and waterfowl. Alaskan locals are concerned the impact of this project on wildlife safety and air quality. Road construction and gravel mining has already begun to prepare for the project, and “Willow’s plan includes hundreds of miles of roads and pipelines, airstrips, a gravel mine, and a new processing facility in the middle of pristine Arctic tundra and wetland.” The potentially detrimental impact of Willow on both native wildlife and global warming has caused distress among many who have heard about the project.

Although protests against the project influenced the plan, they weren’t powerful enough to prevent it. One of the factors behind its approval was the legal issues with ConocoPhillips, the company controlling Willow. ConocoPhillips was protected by leases they obtained decades ago and the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, meaning that rejecting the project could have resulted in the company suing, winning billions of taxpayers’ dollars and still moving on with the project.

The Willow project has caused an uproar for good reason: it will be destructive, escalate global warming, and intensify our dependence on fossil fuels. While decisions of this magnitude can make us feel powerless, it should be ignored. It’s imperative that we become educated about what’s happening in our nation so we know how to prevent the same thing from happening again.

I’ve heard a lot about this project, and it’s so upsetting that it’s been passed. Although I knew a lot of this information before writing this synopsis, I didn’t know that the Biden administration was backed into a corner with legal issues, so I’m glad I did my own research on it.

I plan to continue next week with some more details on the project, so stay tuned to learn with me!

Puko, Timothy. “What is Willow? How an Alaska oil project could impact the environment.” Washington Post, 24 Mar. 2023, p. NA. Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A742863703/OVIC?u=ante588&sid=bookmark-OVIC&xid=e40dc409. Accessed 23 Apr. 2023.