The Biden administration approved the massive Willow oil-drilling project in the Alaskan Arctic over the objections of environmentalists and many Democrats who wanted the project scuttled.
The green light means Houston-based ConocoPhillips can start construction on its roughly $7 billion project in Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, which the company expects will produce about 180,000 barrels of oil a day at its peak—equivalent to about 40% of Alaska’s current crude production.
The Interior Department said it would allow drilling on three of the five drill sites proposed by ConocoPhillips, which announced the Willow discovery in 2017.
The discovery pitted environmental groups denouncing the project as a carbon bomb that would hamper President Biden’s campaign goals to phase out fossil fuels against supporters who argued that the project would generate jobs and revenue for Alaska. Opposition to the project resulted in years of litigation and thousands of pages of environmental analysis by the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management.
The environmental groups are just shills for Russia and Saudi Arabia. They deserve to lose.