President Biden broke one of the main promises he made to voters during his presidential campaign this week, green-lighting a massive oil drilling project on federal land to the chagrin of prominent progressives and environmental groups.
On Monday, the Department of the Interior (DOI) approved permits for oil company ConocoPhillips' proposed 30-year Willow Project in northern Alaska. While the agency touted that it had reduced the size of the project by 40%, environmentalists noted that, under the approved three-site version, it would still yield about 92% of the oil the company sought to produce with the original five-site proposal.
"The Biden administration has committed to fighting climate change and advancing environmental justice—today’s decision to approve the Willow project fails to live up to those promises," Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., Jared Huffman, D-Calif., and Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. said in a joint statement Monday.
"Their decision ignores ... the irrefutable science that says we must stop building projects like this to slow the ever more devastating impacts of climate change," they continued. "The only acceptable Willow project is no Willow project."
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