The Biden administration is reportedly on the verge of approving a massive oil drilling project in northern Alaska that is expected to create thousands of jobs and 600 million barrels of oil over its 30-year lifespan, sending eco-warriors berserk over the “existential threat ” the project represents for the climate.
Senior government officials have signed off on three of the five drilling sites proposed by oil company ConocoPhillips as part of the Willow Project at the National Petroleum Reserve in North Slope Borough, Alaska, Bloomberg first reported Friday night. ConocoPhillips had previously stated that for the project to remain economically viable, the federal government would need to approve at least three of the sites.
In a tweet calling on Biden to abandon support for the plan, the Sierra Club, which has a self-proclaimed mission to “educate and employ humanity to protect the quality of the natural and human environment and to recover”, the Willow Project a “climate catastrophe waiting to happen.”
“This SHOULD NOT be the case @POTUS. The Willow Project is a climate disaster waiting to happen that would devastate wildlife, land, AK communities and our climate,” the environmental group wrote. “We need to accelerate our clean energy transition, not double down on oil and gas.”
BIDEN EXPECTED APPROVAL OF HUGE OIL DRILLING PROJECT IN BLOW TO CLIMATE ACTIVISTS: ‘COMPLETE TREASON’
The Biden administration is reportedly on the verge of approving a large-scale oil drilling project in northern Alaska that is expected to create thousands of jobs and 600 million barrels of oil over its 30-year life. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
In another tweetthe Sierra Club called on its supporters to “tell (Biden) to stop the project”.
Greenpeace USA, an environmental group working to “expose global environmental problems and promote solutions essential to a green and peaceful future,” claimed in a series of posts on social media that the project would serve as a “blatant expansion of fossil fuel extraction” and would be “a betrayal of the millions of young people and local residents who have raised their voices against it”.
In accordance, People vs. Fossil Fuels, a coalition of more than 1,200 activists “working together toward a common goal of ending the fossil fuel era,” exclaimed his supporters to “FLOOD” Biden’s social media accounts in an effort to “make it clear that he should listen to our voices and #StopWillow”.
Climate activists hold a demonstration outside the US Department of the Interior on November 17, 2022 to urge President Biden to reject the Willow Project. (Jemal Gravin/Getty Images for Sunrise AU)
PRESIDENT BIDEN, ENVIRONMENTAL GROUPS BRING ‘SECOND WAVE OF COLONIALISM’ TO ALASKA, SEN. SAYS SULLIVAN
Democrat presidential nominee Marianne Williamson and Senator Ed Markey, D-Mass., have also expressed their opposition to the project.
“So much for that ‘existential threat,'” Williamson, who announced this month that she was running for the 2024 White House, wrote in a tweet.
Markey suggested that the approval of the Willow Project would be a step in “the wrong direction”.
“We cannot allow the Willow project to move forward. We must build a clean energy future – not revert to a dark, fossil-fueled past,” Markey wrote in a tweet. “It doesn’t matter which direction this oil is flowing, it’s going the wrong way.”
Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley also denounced the Biden administration’s reported move to greenlight the Willow Project, calling Biden’s move a “betrayal” of his promises.
“If this story is true, it is a complete betrayal of Biden’s promise not to allow more drilling and a complete catastrophe to contain climate chaos,” Merkley wrote in a tweet. “You can’t ask other countries to forego their fossil fuels if we’re holding greenlighting projects here in America.”
Merkley also suggested in a separate message that fifty years from now, the move to approve the drilling project “might be seen as the knife that killed any possibility of an international agreement to control runaway temperature rises, with devastating consequences.”
Dozens of other activists weighed in on the government’s reported approval of the project, with several claiming it would impact Democratic support for Biden moving forward.
“The Willow Project, an $8 billion oil project, poses an existential threat to Alaska Native communities. Biden is expected to approve closing the gap left by a US-led Western boycott of Russian oil and gas. US carbon imperialism begins at home,” Indigenous organizer and journalist Nick Estes wrote in a tweet.
Climate activists gathered in Washington DC on January 10, 2023 to demand that President Biden stop the Willow Project. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“A ‘climate president’ would not approve the Willow project,” Nina Turner, a senior fellow at the New School’s Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy, said of Biden in a tweet.
Bill McKibben — an author and environmental activist who founded 350, a self-described “international movement of everyday people working to end the fossil fuel era and build a world of community-led renewable energy for all” — also addressed on the Biden administration. probable endorsement of the Willow Project, claiming it to be a “world-class carbon bomb”.
“Presumably, the White House is about to approve a massive new oil complex — the #WillowProject — in Alaska. You hope they’ll reconsider: It’s a world-class carbon bomb, and small voters, young and old, just hate it. Jimmy Carter helped keep Alaska – to you, Joe Biden,” McKibben wrote in a tweet.
Aidan DiMarco, president of the New Jersey Young Progressive Democrats, said he will relinquish his support for Biden if the Willow Project comes to fruition, writing in a tweet that he “will not endorse, vote or volunteer for him if he is the nominee”. if the project gets the president’s approval.
“I am a proud Democrat, but I refuse to vote for ANY Democrat who pushes us in the wrong direction when it comes to tackling the climate crisis. I want to live on a livable planet and I will vote for any candidate who is. ” fighting for my right to live on a healthy planet,” DiMarco wrote in a separate tweet.
Environmentalist Dallas Goldtooth also weighed in on the issue via Twitter, concluding that “NO ONE can tell me @JoeBiden is serious about climate IF he approves the #WillowProject.”
“If he passes this massive climate bomb, he has utterly failed. This will be HIS legacy to a burning planet,” Goldtooth claimed.
Earlier this month, actor Mark Ruffalo called on the Biden administration to abandon the drilling initiative, referring to it as a “ticking carbon bomb” as he urged his followers to pressure Biden and Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland to reject the project.
“This $8 billion oil drilling project is a ticking carbon bomb with detrimental impacts on indigenous communities and wildlife,” Ruffalo wrote in a post shared on Twitter. “Please send your letters to @POTUS and @SecDebHaaland to stop The Willow Project before March 6.”
Alaska GOP Senator Dan Sullivan said Monday that Alaskans feel President Biden’s administration, along with environmental groups seeking to suppress an Arctic oil project, are bringing a “second wave of colonialism” to the Last Frontier.
Alaska GOP Senator Dan Sullivan said this week that Alaskans feel President Biden’s administration, along with environmental groups seeking to suppress an Arctic oil project, are bringing a “second wave of colonialism” to the Last Frontier. (Brandon Bell Pool)
Sullivan, along with Alaska GOP Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Alaska Democrat Rep. Mary Peltola, expressed their support for the project. Sullivan also said it has received “very strong support” from the region’s indigenous people, but that the Biden administration has ignored those comments.
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“What they’re starting to say is these lower 48 environmental groups that are now waging this big campaign against Willow are really undertaking the second wave of colonialism,” he said. “This is from our Native leaders. Eco-colonialism, where they come forward and tell Alaskans, ‘Here’s how you should live your life.’ It is ridiculous.”
After reports of the anticipated approval of the Willow project, the White House said the decision has not yet been finalized.
“No final decisions have been made — anyone who says a final decision has been made is wrong,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.
Fox News’ Thomas Catenacci contributed to this article.
