President Joe Biden recently announced a controversial decision to approve the Willow Project, a major oil project in Alaska, despite his strong inclination not to do so. The project is expected to produce 576 million barrels of oil and 239 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions over a 30-year period.
Environmentalists and young voters have expressed strong opposition to the decision which the White House Council on Environmental Quality addressed by meeting with environmental organizations. To counterbalance the Willow Project, the Biden administration simultaneously proposed sweeping protections for 2.8 million acres in the Beaufort Sea of the Arctic Ocean as well as 13 million acres of federal land in Alaska. They also withdrew a Trump-era land swap that would have permitted construction of a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and designated two new national monuments and expanded a third marine monument.
Despite these efforts, many environmentalists remain unconvinced and argue that the impacts of the Willow project cannot be offset through conservation efforts. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) warned that the decision has broken the trust of young and progressive voters. Representative Ral Grijalva (D-AZ), the current top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee, has noted that the administration will need to do more with regulations, additional land and water protections, and making sure that the Inflation Reduction Act speed up the energy transition.
The Sunrise Movement has called for the Biden administration to declare a climate emergency, invoke the Defense Production Act and take other steps in order to prove their commitment to fighting climate change. Democratic strategist Jon Reinish has said that the Biden administration must make every move to counterbalance the Willow decision with further pro-environment, anti-climate change policy in order to maintain the support of progressive and climate-minded voters.
The president's decision to approve the Willow Project has sparked outcry from environmentalists and young voters alike. Despite the attempts of the Biden Administration to mitigate the impact of the project with protections and new conservation efforts, many remain unconvinced and have called for drastic measures to be taken in order to demonstrate their commitment to fighting climate change. Only time will tell what will be the outcome of this decision.