The Biden administration on Monday will formally approve a huge oil drilling project in Alaska known as Willow, according to two people familiar with the decision, despite widespread opposition on environmental and climate grounds.
The president will also impose sweeping new restrictions on offshore oil leasing in the Arctic Ocean and across Alaska’s North Slope in an apparent effort to temper criticism over the Willow decision and, as one administration official put it, to form a “firewall” to limit future oil leases in the region. The Interior Department also is expected to issue new rules to protect more than 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska from oil and gas leasing.
The new limits, however, are unlikely to offset concerns that the $8 billion Willow project, led by oil giant ConocoPhillips, will have the potential to produce more than 600 million barrels of crude over 30 years, contributing significantly to carbon dioxide emissions that are warming the planet.
The president has been lobbied fiercely by the oil industry and Alaska lawmakers to approve the Willow drilling project, which will take place inside the petroleum reserve. Environmental activists have launched online campaigns and protested outside the White House, arguing approval of the project would be a betrayal of Mr. Biden’s pledges to move the nation away from fossil fuels.
Representatives from ConocoPhillips said Sunday night that they haven’t yet seen a record of decision and declined to comment until one had been made official.
Climate activists said they were pleased with Mr. Biden’s plans to protect the Arctic, but said they continue to view the approval of Willow as counter to the president’s pledges to prioritize climate change.
The Biden Administration’s Environmental Agenda
“This mammoth project is still going forward,” said Abbigail Dillen, president of Earthjustice, an environmental group. Ms. Dillen said if the Biden administration can use executive action to protect the Arctic and other portions of the petroleum reserve, “they could be doing it with respect to Willow” as well.
The Biden administration intends to approve permits for three drilling sites and deny a fourth one that would have been closest to a coastal wetland known as Teshekpuk Lake, according to two people familiar with the decision who requested anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the announcement. The administration also will deny a road that would have led to the fourth drilling site, the two people said.
The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment on the Willow decision beyond referring to remarks that Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, made on Friday stressing that a final decision hadn’t been made.
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According to the two people familiar with the deliberations, the administration has concluded that it doesn’t have the legal authority to deny permits to ConocoPhillips, which has long held leases on the land in the petroleum reserve.
ConocoPhillips had initially sought five drilling sites for the project, and had called the approval of three pads the minimum that they would find acceptable. Any fewer, and the company had indicated that it would back out, saying the project would no longer be financially viable.
The cornerstone of Mr. Biden’s new Arctic drilling environmental pledges, which he is expected to detail on Monday, will be an announcement that he will declare the entire Arctic Ocean off limits to oil and gas leasing, completing an effort began by President Obama.
The Interior Department said Mr. Biden will withdraw about 2.8 million acres of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean near shore in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska as indefinitely off limits for future oil and gas leasing.
Mr. Obama banned drilling in portions of the Arctic Ocean’s Beaufort and Chukchi Seas, using a 1953 law that allows presidents to block the sale of new offshore drilling and mining rights. President Trump later tried to open all coastal waters of the United States to oil and gas drilling, including the areas protected by the Obama administration.
In addition to the ban on new Arctic drilling the Interior Department will issue new rules to protect more than 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve Alaska from oil and gas leasing.
Mr. Biden also will announce new protections for a number of sites in Alaska including Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon, and Peard Bay Special Areas.
