US to Approve Alaska Drilling Project with High Carbon Emissions: Reports

According to news reports, the Biden administration is set to approve an $8bn oil drilling project in Alaska. The Willow project, led by ConocoPhillips, is expected to produce around 600 million barrels of oil equivalent over its lifetime, with peak production of 180,000 barrels per day. The project is located within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, which is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the US. The decision comes a day after the US Department of Interior announced new protections for more than 5.3 million hectares of “ecologically sensitive” special areas within Alaska’s petroleum reserve and made nearly 1.2 million hectares of the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean “indefinitely off limits” for oil and gas leasing. Environmental groups have criticised the decision to approve the project, calling it a “carbon bomb” that would be a betrayal of Biden’s campaign pledges to curb new oil and gas drilling. However, Alaska politicians, unions and Indigenous communities have pressured Biden to approve the project, saying it would bring much-needed jobs and billions of dollars in taxes and mitigation funds to the region.