The Biden administration has granted approval to a controversial oil project in Northern Alaska, despite criticism from climate activists who have described it as a “carbon bomb.” The approved $8 billion Willow project, which has the potential to drill up to 600 million barrels of oil from the federally controlled National Petroleum Reserve, has drawn widespread support among lawmakers, unions, and indigenous communities in the Alaska who had been pushing the administration to approve it. They argued that the project would create about 2,500 jobs and generate as much as $17 billion in revenue for the federal government, as reported by the New York Times.
Critics have called the decision a blatant betrayal of President Joe Biden’s pledges to move the U.S. away from fossil fuels.
The Willow project has garnered significant attention on social media. The hashtag #StopWillow has reached over 170 million views on TikTok, while a Change.org petition to kill the project before it was approved amassed more than 3 million signatures.
According to the administration’s own estimates, the Willow project would generate enough oil to emit over 278 million metric tons of carbon pollution over its lifetime–equivalent to adding more than 2 million cars onto U.S. roads.
The formal approval of the project came just a day after the administration effectively declared the entire Arctic Ocean off limits to any future oil and gas leasing, blocking off nearly 3 million acres and imposing new protections.
