The world is facing the biggest climate crisis in history, and it’s about to get much worse. 

On March 13, the Biden administration approved the horrific Willow Project in Alaska, ConocoPhillips’s massive Willow oil drilling project. It moved through the administration’s approval process for months, although it gained a sudden uprising of online activism against it, including more than one million letters written to the White House in protest of the project and the Petition has more than 3 million signatures.

Here’s what to know about the Willow Project:

ConocoPhillips’s Willow Project is a massive and decades long oil drilling venture on Alaska’s North Slope in the National Petroleum Reserve, which is owned by the federal government. The area where the project is planned holds up to 600 million barrels of oil. 

ConocoPhillips is a Houston-based energy company that has been exploring and drilling for oil in Alaska for years. Willow was proposed by ConocoPhillips and originally approved by the Trump administration in 2020. ConocoPhillips was initially approved to construct five drill pads, which the Biden administration ultimately reduced to three. Three pads will allow the company to drill about 90% of the oil they are pursuing.

Now that the Biden administration has given the Willow project the thumbs up, construction can begin. However, it is unclear exactly when that will happen, in large part due to legal challenges. Earthjustice, an environmental law group, is expected to file a complaint against the project soon and will likely seek an injunction to try to block the project from going forward. The Willow Project will almost certainly face a legal challenge. Earthjustice has already started laying out their legal rationale, saying the Biden administration’s authority to protect surface resources on Alaska’s public lands includes taking steps to reduce planet-warming carbon pollution, which Willow would definitely add to. 

There is support for the Willow Project from the state’s lawmakers who claim the project will create jobs, boost domestic energy production, and lessen the country’s reliance on foreign oil. A coalition of Alaska Native groups on the North Slope also supports the project, saying it could be a much-needed new source of revenue for the region and fund services including education and health care. 

However, there is also a large opposition to the Willow Project. Alaska Natives living closer to the planned project, including tribal members in the Native village of Nuiqsut, are deeply concerned about the health and environmental impacts of a major oil development. In addition, a surge of online activism against Willow has emerged on TikTok in the last week, resulting in over one million letters being sent to the Biden administration against the project and over 2.8 million signatures on the same Change.org petition to stop Willow.

Biden has broken his campaign promise by approving the Willow Project. During his 2020 presidential campaign, Biden vowed to end new oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters, which he carried out as part of an early executive order. These several areas for new drilling goes against everything Biden has promised his voters.

Regardless of who supports or who opposes the Willow Project, if the project goes forward it will have detrimental consequences on the environment. It would open up around 629 million barrels of oil and produce 287 million metric tons of CO2 over 30 years. If the plan goes through, it’s game over. It will cause the earth irreversible damage. Ecosystems are gone, global warming will become unstoppable and animals are being whipped out at an uncontrollable pace. The Arctic is warming up four times faster than anywhere else in the world. 

Some things are worth saving. We don’t have much time left before it is too late. Go to Protect the Arctic and sign the letter to save our future. 

Citations: 

The Willow Project – Protect Our Winters

Willow Project, explained: What to know about the Alaska oil-drilling venture | CNN Politics