The Willow Project

The Biden administration’s approval of the Willow Project reveals their true colors regarding the climate

AS MONSTROUS STEEL pipes slither toward a smoking metal tower, an Iñupiat mother and a polar bear can only look on mournfully. While they silently suffer, the brand new oil rig eats away at what used to be their home, poisoning the air they breathe and cracking the ice where they stand. This is the future of Alaska after the newly approved Willow Project, which is melting away any false perceptions of the Biden administration’s stance on climate change.

The Willow Project is a massive oil and gas drilling initiative developed by the oil company ConocoPhillips, which will span over a 23-million-acre federal oil reserve in Alaska. The area holds up to 600 million barrels of oil, as well as several indigenous Iñupiat villages and sizable polar bear and yellow-billed loon populations.

If this plan were to go through as currently proposed, the ecological consequences would amount to the release of 9.2 million metric tons of pollutant gases annually, according to The New York Times. Additionally, the exposure to pollution and contamination that is likely to occur near the drilling site would have an enormous impact on the local Nuiqsut community, with ConocoPhillips concluding in its own investigation that there is a strong possibility the community will experience an increase in cancer, respiratory illness, as well as fetus and birth complications, according to Democracy Now. disapprove of it, and a total of 38 local indigenous organizations have also spoken out against Willow, calling the drilling initiative a move which promotes corporate profts ahead of native Alaskans. With criticism of the Willow Project echoing from both their national and local constituents, it has become clear that the Biden administration approved this plan with self-serving motives in mind.

A major issue concerning the American electorate is gasoline prices, which have seen a dramatic increase while Biden has been in offce. The reasons for the uptick in gas costs are both diverse and complicated, but this has not stopped many from claiming that the president is to blame. Perhaps in a genuine concern for securing America’s energy independence, or as a means of distracting from the cost of flling up a car, Biden’s administration took the Willow Project, slimmed it down ever so slightly, and approved it despite knowing the ecological consequences.

“From what I have seen about the project, I’m concerned about the potential impact it will have on the environment,” Gables Earth sponsor Elizabeth Kiely said. “Oil and gas drilling can have negative environmental impacts, such as water pollution and habitat destruction, which could harm wildlife and ecosystems and may have long-term consequences.”

The public was well aware of the project’s negative consequences, and soon after an online petition went viral, amassing over 5 million signatures across an array of social media platforms. Shortly thereafter, practically every major news network ran coverage on the president’s approval of Willow, and while some reported critically on the project, others, like CNN and the Washington Post, pointed out its popularity with local Alaskans who will presumably receive greater access to job opportunities.

Yet, according to the Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, those in the communities that will be affected by the project strongly

As a result, the Biden administration has alienated a large branch of its supporters and revealed enormous hypocrisy when it comes to their stance on climate change policy. This is especially jarring when considering the president’s 2020 campaign, during which he promised that no more drilling would occur on federal lands should he be elected, according to NPR. Going back on this fundamental campaign promise has not only angered climate activists, but indigenous activists as well, who are outraged at such a blatant betrayal that endangers their lives.

“This whole situation seems so bizarre,” senior Julie Maldonado said. “I don’t understand why Biden feels the need to approve of such a harmful project when it’s clear his supporters don’t support it.”

Though this may seem like an isolated event, it is but one instance of many when this administration has virtue signaled on a political position, only to later on either underdeliver or fat-out lie and act in complete opposition to some of their most valued campaign promises.

The Willow Project has unmasked the political theatrics in the Democratic party, their hypocrisy taking center stage, while upstage smoke rises from the Alaskan tundra, where yet another oil rig has made itself at home.