‘Climate Disaster’: Lawsuit Filed to Halt Willow Drilling Project

The Alaska company will add 239 million metric tons of carbon emissions to the atmosphere over the next 30 years as the Biden administration changes its climate policy.

Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to stop a controversial oil drilling project in Alaska approved by the US government, which has vowed to crack down on climate change.

The six groups that filed the lawsuit in US District Court on Tuesday accused the Department of the Interior and other agencies of violating the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and other laws by authorizing the extraction of fossil fuels.

“The massive ConocoPhillips oil and gas project poses a real threat to Arctic Alaskan wildlife, ecosystems and communities,” said Mike Scott of the Sierra Club, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

“If they are allowed to start, the Willow project would be a climate disaster, the effects of which would be felt for decades.”

The Department of the Interior gave the green light US energy giant ConocoPhillips on Monday to drill for oil at three sites in the federally owned National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska’s pristine western Arctic.

Environmental groups had urged President Joe Biden, who vowed during the 2020 White House race not to approve any new oil and gas leases on public lands, to reject the $8 billion drilling effort.

The Willow Project It will add 239 million metric tons of carbon emissions to the atmosphere over the next 30 years, equivalent to the annual emissions from 64 coal-fired power plants. Environmental organizations have called it a “carbon bomb.”

‘Frivolous legal challenges’

Alaska lawmakers lobbied hard to pass the drilling plan, defending it as a source of several thousand jobs and a contributor to US energy independence with a maximum production of 180,000 barrels of oil per day, or about 576 million barrels in 30 years.

Reacting to the Biden administration’s approval, Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan said legal efforts to stop the project were expected.

“We are prepared to defend this decision against likely frivolous legal challenges from the very Lower 48 NGOs that have consistently tried to kill the Willow project,” Sullivan said.

Biden has vowed to cut Emissions of greenhouse gases halved by 2030 compared to 2005 with the goal of achieving a net zero emissions economy by 2050 at the latest.

“Once again, we find ourselves going to court to protect our lives, our communities and our future,” said Siqiñiq Maupin, executive director of the group Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic. aforementioned by the Anchorage Daily News as saying.

“The Biden administration’s approval of the ConocoPhillips Willow project makes no sense for the health of the Arctic or the planet, and comes after numerous calls from local communities for tribal consultation and real acknowledgment of the impacts on the land. , water, animals and people. ”

There was no immediately available comment from the Interior Department.

The Earthjustice group said it will soon file another lawsuit to stop the drilling project.

“There is no question that the (Biden) administration possessed the legal authority to detain Willow, but chose not to,” Earthjustice attorney Erik Grafe said in a statement. “We are committed to ensuring that the administration complies with the law and ultimately fulfills this promise for future generations.”