Despite promising “no more drilling on federal lands, period,” the Biden administration approved the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska this past Monday. We know continued development of fossil fuels is incompatible with a safe and livable climate.
To get up and running, the Willow Project will require 250 wells, thirty-seven miles of road, and 386 miles of pipeline. Over the next thirty years, it will produce an estimated 263 million tons of CO2, the equivalent of fifty-six million cars driving or seventy coal-fired power plants operating for one year.
Furthermore, the noise, traffic, and pollution generated by the Willow Project will disrupt fragile ecosystems and directly impact the food ways of indigenous communities as caribou populations will be threatened.
At a time we need to be rapidly moving to sustainable energy sources, leadership is planning the equivalent of detonating a carbon bomb. I’m angry and deeply disappointed.
But I haven’t lost hope. There are still legal pathways to stop the Willow Project. A number of organizations are suing the Biden administration. We, too, must continue to call, email, and text our elected officials, sign petitions, and keep the conversation going within our communities. We must turn anger into action by getting engaged and organized. Our future depends on it.