Democrats rebuke Biden over Alaska Willow oil project

February 01, 2023

Democrats in Congress blasted the Biden administration for advancing the proposed ConocoPhillips Willow oil project in Alaska on Wednesday, saying the Interior Department had bowed to political pressure that would set back the country's efforts to fight climate change.

The new environmental report on the project comes as Republicans have ramped up pressure on the White House, blaming President Joe Biden's environmental policies and the slowdown in offering new federal leases for oil production for the jump in gasoline prices last spring, though prices have declined sharply from those peaks.

"I am not particularly sympathetic to political pressure being the justification for this being a really environmentally reckless decision," Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) said in an interview. "I find it completely inconsistent with other values and goals we appreciate from this administration. It’s completely out of sync with the moment we’re in with the climate crisis.”

The Interior Department's supplemental environmental impact study laid out a plan to reduce the number of wells for Conoco's North Slope project that could yield as much as 600 million barrels of oil over its lifetime, but looked likely to put the project on a path to final approval in the coming months.

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By:  Josh Siegel
Source: Politico Pro