Biden administration approves construction for Willow Project Political Parley

Lilianna Moran | Copy Editor

Despite intensive efforts of environmentalists and recent social media campaigns to thwart it, the Biden administration approved construction for the Willow Project, a massive oil operation, on March 13.

"For years, the United States has been looking for alternative sources of oil,” AP Environmental science teacher Charlene Mitchell said. “The idea is that they want to rely less on foreign oil and get oil on their own, so we won't have to pay all these fees. The project would bring a ridiculous amount of oil to the market, granted it will take a long time before we reap the benefits of the Willow Project because they have to construct everything."

The project was proposed by the oil company ConocoPhillips, and initially permitted by the Trump administration in 2020. Willow’s plan is to establish a large-scale oil drilling site on Alaska’s North Slope in the National Petroleum Reserve. The project originally aimed to install five drilling pads under the Trump administration, however, the Biden administration ultimately reduced those pads to three, allowing the company to drill 90% of its intended oil--600 million barrels (CNN.)

"It's sad but I'm not surprised,” Mitchell said. “The Biden administration had their hands tied because they had to follow up on what the Trump Administration did. If they would have put more blockages in the way of this company, they'd (ConocoPhillips) press charges on the government. It's sad what it's going to mean for the environment. But I do understand that they're trying to reduce foreign oil."

Although this minimization of the national dependence on foreign oil will bring benefits to the US economy and national security, the environmental impacts are not to be overlooked.

"The reason it's such a problem is that it's nearly a billion barrels of oil, it's a