Willow project
The Willow Project, proposed by Houston-based ConocoPhillips, is a significant oil-drilling initiative located on federal land in Alaska's National Petroleum Reserve, a region known for its vast natural resources. Approved by the Biden administration in March 2023, the project aims to extract an estimated 576 million barrels of oil over thirty years, despite its controversial nature and the environmental implications associated with it. The project has been met with substantial opposition from environmentalists, local Native American tribes, and various advocacy groups who argue it poses threats to local wildlife habitats, contributes to climate change, and undermines efforts to reduce fossil fuel dependence. Critics highlight the potential release of millions of metric tons of carbon dioxide and the disruption of ecosystems crucial to species like polar bears and caribou.
In contrast, supporters, including Alaskan lawmakers, argue that Willow will generate jobs, bolster domestic energy production, and enhance economic prospects in a state facing economic challenges. The project involves extensive infrastructure, including wells, roads, and pipelines, and is estimated to cost between $8 billion and $10 billion. Legal challenges to the project continue, reflecting a broader debate about energy policy and climate commitments in the U.S. As the country aims for net-zero emissions by 2050, the Willow Project stands as a focal point of contention in discussions about balancing energy needs with environmental stewardship.
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Willow project
Houston-based energy company ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project is an extensive, controversial oil-drilling venture on federal land on Alaska’s North Slope in the National Petroleum Reserve, the United States’ largest plot of public land. The project, located less than thirty miles from the Arctic Ocean and alternately known simply as Willow, has become a central focus in the United States’ debate about climate change.
The project area, with a footprint of nearly five hundred acres, is considered one of the country’s most promising regions for new oil, containing up to 600 million barrels of it. President Joe Biden’s administration and the Bureau of Land Management, overseen by the Interior Department, approved the project on March 13, 2023, at reduced scope and amid intense criticism. Still, the oil could take years to reach the market because construction requires ice roads and can take place only during the winter. Continuing legal challenges also could present further delays.
Consulting firm Wood Mackenzie has estimated the project cost at $8 billion to $10 billion and said it is the largest oil project the country ever considered, a scope that has rocketed the project to the top of environmental activists’ priority lists.
Background
The National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, or NPR-A, is a region about the size of Indiana that US president Warren G. Harding first recognized in 1923. The Naval Petroleum Reserves Production Act designated it for oil and gas development in 1976, creating special rules for oil and gas extraction and reserving some areas for environmental protection.
ConocoPhillips proposed the Willow Project during former president Donald Trump’s administration in 2020 and initially was approved to construct five drill pads. The Biden administration’s approval, which came after about five years of permit and legal disputes, months of intense lobbying, and 4.6 million objection petitions, ultimately reduced that number to three, which would allow the company to drill about 90 percent of the oil it is pursuing. The approval also required ConocoPhillips to surrender rights to about 68,000 acres in existing NPR-A leases.
Defending himself against accusations that he broke a campaign promise of “no new drilling, period” on federal lands, President Biden has cited limited ability to stop the project due to the law that governs NPR-A and rights-conferring leases ConocoPhillips has held since well before he took office. Legal experts have noted that a project rejection likely would have resulted in a lawsuit that could have cost taxpayers billions of dollars and still not stopped the project.
Overview
Willow plans call for up to 250 wells, 37 miles of roads, and 389 miles of pipelines and airstrips plus a central processing facility. Analysts estimate that Willow could produce 576 million barrels of oil over thirty years.
Willow has scores of both opponents and proponents.
Opponents, including city officials and Native American tribes who live near the site, say the project will have negative impacts on health, ultimately create too much planet-warming carbon pollution, and undermine efforts to phase out US fossil fuels. They also predict the destruction of habitat for native species, such as polar bears, and altered migration patterns for animals, such as caribou and waterfowl. Opponents have contended Willow could put 239 to 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in thirty years, which they have likened to driving 1.7 million to 2 million gasoline-powered vehicles per year.
Opponents also have stated that the project site is in a part of Alaska already suffering from coastal erosion, melting sea ice, and thawing permafrost, problems they say Willow will worsen. Some conservationists have said the project could destroy 532 acres of wetlands and disturb 619 acres of polar bear habitats and more than 17,000 acres of bird habitats.
The worldwide network POW, or Protect Our Winters, founded in 2008 to mobilize communities around the issue of decreasing snow, also has taken aim at Willow, calling it one of the gravest threats to a stable climate, healthy snowpack, and access to public lands yet. POW has been a historical advocate of protecting Alaska’s public lands from oil extraction.
The project also has drawn the ire of some Canadians, who have questioned why President Biden, in a seemingly contradictory fashion, in 2021 rejected the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have brought Canadian oil to American refineries. Biden once again cited his lack of legal standing despite his personal objections to Willow.
Proponents, including Alaskan lawmakers, however, say the project will create jobs, reliably increase domestic energy production, and lessen the country’s dependence on foreign oil. Some opponents, such as Joshua Hunt writing for Scientific American, have specifically challenged the jobs claim, saying statistics suggest the predicted 2,500 new oil jobs would disproportionately go to White men, some from out of state, despite the extreme poverty many Native Americans and Alaskan natives experience.
Proponents also say Willow will produce cleaner fossil fuels than if they were obtained from countries such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. They have predicted billions of dollars worth of Willow-related economic activity and valuable tax revenue in the economically suffering state.
On March 15, 2023, an environmental coalition led by Earthjustice filed a lawsuit to overturn the Biden administration’s approval, but on April 3, a federal judge rejected its request for a preliminary injunction. Legal challenges are expected to continue. The Natural Resources Defense Council, partnering with other opponents, challenged the claim that the Bureau of Land Management has no authority to further limit Willow. An Iñupiat group and environmentalists also challenged the project. Both challenges were denied in court later in 2023.
Only a week after the project was approved, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, released a report stating that world governments are straying from pledges to keep global warming in check and the window of opportunity to secure a livable, sustainable future for all is closing quickly. The United States has a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050, and Willow approval throws out a major roadblock to that goal, they say.
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, while noting many of the negative effects Willow could have, nonetheless notes that few other countries, including the wealthy, progressive Canada and Norway, have been willing to restrict development of domestic fossil fuel resources.
Bibliography
“Alaska, The Willow Project, and the Future of Fossil Fuels.” NPR, 22 Mar. 2023, www.npr.org/2023/03/22/1165353140/alaska-the-willow-project-and-the-future-of-fossil-fuels. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
Bohrer, Becky, Matthew Brown, and Matthew Daly. “What is the Controversy behind the Alaska Willow Oil Project?” PBS News Hour/The Associated Press, 13 Mar. 2023, www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/what-is-the-controversy-behind-the-alaska-willow-oil-project. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
Gordon, Noah. “The Willow Project and the Race to Pump the ‘Last Barrel’ of Oil.” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 16 Mar. 2023, carnegieendowment.org/2023/03/16/willow-project-and-race-to-pump-last-barrel-of-oil-pub-89298. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
Hunt, Joshua. “The Willow Project Promises a Worse Future for Alaska – and for Earth.” Scientific American, 17 May 2023, www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-willow-project-promises-a-worse-future-for-alaska-and-for-the-earth/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
Nilsen, Ella. “The Willow Project Has Been Approved. Here’s What to Know about the Controversial Oil-Drilling Venture.” CNN Politics, 14 Mar. 2023, www.cnn.com/2023/03/14/politics/willow-project-oil-alaska-explained-climate/index.html. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
Puko, Timothy. “What is Willow? How an Alaska Oil Project Could Affect the Environment.” The Washington Post, 17 March 2023, updated 22 Apr. 2023, www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2023/03/17/willow-project-alaska-oil-drilling-explained/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
“The Willow Project.” POW: Protect Our Winters, 2024, protectourwinters.org/campaign/willow/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.
Turrentine, Jeff. “Why the Willow Project is a Bad Idea.” Natural Resources Defense Council, 30 Mar. 2023, www.nrdc.org/stories/why-willow-project-bad-idea. Accessed 4 Feb. 2025.