The North Slope area, in Alaska, in a remote region of the Arctic Circle, is one of the last virgin territories in the United States.
It will soon cease to be so in a good part of its extension.
The administration of Joe Biden, described as “the most important environmental president,” gave the green light to massive oil development there, even as scientists insist on the urgency of curbing fossil fuel emissions as only recourse against climate change.
The so-called Willow project, led by the ConocoPhillips company, will allow the extraction of 180,000 barrels a day, although it will still be a few years until the crude starts to flow. It is planned that over the next thirty years, 600 million barrels will be extracted from that pristine area.
The paradox facing the United States and other countries is that the transition to clean energy lags behind the reality of an economy driven largely by oil consumption. “If the world were to turn off the tap on fossil fuels tomorrow, hell would break loose,” states an article in the prestigious magazine The Atlantic.
In his calculations, he indicates that, in the event of closure, 30% of global electricity and 9% of transport would continue to operate. Billions would be stuck at home, in the dark. Matisa, however, said that while the leaders are talking about the transition, they are thinking more about the oil and gas supply for the next week, month or year, since a project like Willow will take decades to be operational and the The scenario will then be very different.
It is in this context that the decision of the Biden Government occurs, which has provoked the anger of activists and numerous democratic legislators. Many feel betrayed by a president who, as a candidate, promised that “there will be no more drilling on federal lands, period.”
Last year he signed legislation worth billions to deploy green infrastructure with the argument that global warming “is a threat to the existence of humanity”.
But this week it ratified one of the biggest oil drilling projects in decades. The construction will involve an investment of 7,000 million dollars and will generate 2,500 jobs and millions in profits for the State. On the ground, Republicans and Democrats are defending this initiative which, instead, opened the most popular signature collection campaign of those that have been carried out on Change.org.
Willow’s scale is huge. Its design includes more than 200 oil wells, miles of abundant pipelines, an airport, a central processing plant and another gravel processing plant to allow oil to be extracted for much longer than scientists recommend to avoid catastrophic global warming.
The consumption of crude oil produced in this operation will be equivalent to the emission of 280 million metric tons of greenhouse gases over three decades, according to federal analyses.
This will amount to 9.2 million metric tons of carbon emissions annually, which is like putting two million cars on the road every year.
The cost of fuel, the elections looming on the horizon and legal issues are the possible justifications for the turn of the White House. Mainly because of the legal issue, because ConocoPhillips has had leases for the drilling site to do prospecting for more than two decades. The government felt that denying permission would lead to a lengthy lawsuit that could cost the public coffers no less than 5 billion.
Instead of confrontation, the Administration sets limits. Instead of five drilling sites, there will be three. In addition, the company agrees to return 27,600 hectares of the environment. And the Administration will put coastal wetland protection limitations on Lake Teshekpuk. This would act as a kind of safety belt to prevent the Willow project from expanding further.
Biden also wants to protect and put off the perimeter almost 1.5 million hectares in the Beaufort Sea, in the sector of the Arctic Ocean.
But these measures could be wet paper for future governments and seem more than insufficient for environmentalists.
Ben Jealous, a Democrat and president of the Sierra Club, one of the oldest and most influential environmental organizations, said that “what he announced is nothing more than a shop window” when talking about those adopted restrictions. In his statements to the media, he expressed it in an even more graphic way: “If President Biden were here, I would tell him not to spit on us and want to make us believe it’s raining.”
In a joint statement, several Democratic lawmakers accused the Administration of “ignoring the voices” of affected communities and science, which warn us against initiatives like this.
An activist replied that “the best Willow project is not to have a Willow project”.