The Biden administration reportedly signed off on a large-scale oil project in rural Alaska, one of its most consequential resource decisions yet and one certain to devastate the environmental groups and congressional Democrats who advocated against the project.
The approval from the Interior's Bureau of Land Management represents the culmination of years of lobbying around Willow, which, as proposed, sought to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day on five drilling pads.
THE MOST CONSEQUENTIAL DECISION OF BIDEN’S PRESIDENCY?
The record of decision, to be announced on Monday, will approve a smaller version of the proposed project, giving ConocoPhillips three drilling pads with potential for a fourth, according to multiple reports.
Willow's approval will be coupled with new restrictions on oil and gas drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, where the project is being developed.
The Biden administration faced competing pressures with Willow between balancing its climate change agenda and pressure to limit the expansion of fossil fuels with legal obligations under federal laws governing resource development on public lands.
President Joe Biden has also sought more oil production from the industry, including from operators holding leases on federal lands, in response to higher retail fuel prices. It contrasts some of his messaging during his presidential campaign, during which he promised to restrict drilling and leasing on federal lands.
Ryan Lance, chairman and CEO of ConocoPhillips, said the company's plans for developing Willow are in accordance with Biden's repeated calls targeted specifically at large integrated energy companies for more oil production to bring down prices.
"It's exactly what this administration has been asking our industry to do, lean in, produce more [oil]," Lance said Tuesday during remarks at CERAWeek by S&P Global, an annual industry conference in Houston.
Environmental groups implored the Biden administration to block Willow, which would be the largest single fossil fuel development project on federal lands, to prevent additional oil production and greenhouse gas emissions.
"BLM cannot dismiss the significance of these emissions on the basis that they are a small fraction of global emissions, which is true for any single project, because it ignores the global nature of the problem posed by climate change," Earthjustice, an environmental nongovernmental organization, said in comments to the Bureau of Land Management's draft environmental review of the project.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Alaska's congressional delegation strongly supported the project, as did many of the Alaska native organizations that stand to benefit from the economic windfall associated with additional oil development.