ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The Biden administration's approval of the biggest oil drilling project in Alaska in decades promises to widen a rift among Alaska Natives, with some saying that oil money can't counter the damages caused by climate change and others defending the project as economically vital.
Two lawsuits filed almost immediately by environmentalists and one Alaska Native group are likely to exacerbate tensions that built up over years of debate about ConocoPhillips Alaska's Willow project.
Many communities on Alaska's North Slope celebrated the project's approval, citing new jobs and the influx of money that will help support schools, public services and infrastructure investments in their isolated villages.
An exploratory drilling camp in 2019 at the proposed site of the Willow oil project on Alaska's North Slope.
Just a few decades ago, many villages had no running water, said Doreen Leavitt, director of natural resources for the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope. Housing shortages continues to be a problem, with multiple generations often living together, she said.
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"We still have a long ways to go," Leavitt said, "We don't want to go backwards."
She said 50 years of oil production on the petroleum-rich North Slope has shown development can coexist with wildlife and the traditional, subsistence way of life.
However, some Alaska Natives blasted the decision to greenlight the project, and they are supported by environmental groups challenging the approval in federal court.
Three leaders in the Nuiqsut community, who described their remote village as "ground zero for industrialization of the Arctic," wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, a member of New Mexico's Laguna Pueblo and the first Native American to lead a Cabinet department.
They cited the threat that climate change poses to caribou migrations and to their ability to travel across once-frozen areas. Money from the ConocoPhillips project won't be enough to mitigate those threats, they said. The community is about 36 miles from the Willow project.
"They are payoffs for the loss of our health and culture," the Nuiqsut leaders wrote. "No dollar can replace what we risk. … It is a matter of our survival."
Asisaun Toovak, the mayor of Utqiaġvik, during a meeting Tuesday in Anchorage, Alaska.
But Asisaun Toovak, the mayor of Utqiaġvik, the nation's northernmost community on the Arctic Ocean, said she jumped for joy when she heard the Biden administration approved the Willow project.
"I could say that the majority of the people, the majority of our community and the majority of the people were excited about the Willow Project," she said.
Willow is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, a region roughly the size of Maine. It would produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day, the use of which would result in at least 263 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions over 30 years, according to a federal environmental review.
The Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, Sierra Club and other groups that sued Tuesday said Interior officials ignored the fact that every ton of greenhouse gas emitted by the project would contribute to sea ice melt, which endangers polar bears and Alaska villages. A second lawsuit seeking to block the project was filed Wednesday by Greenpeace and other environmental groups.
For Alaska Natives to reconcile their points of view, it will take discussions. "We just continue to try to sit at the table together, break bread and meet as a region," said Leavitt, who is the secretary for the tribal council representing eight North Slope villages.
"I will say the majority of the voices that we heard against Willow were from the Lower 48," she said of the contiguous U.S., excluding Alaska and Hawaii.
ConocoPhillips Alaska said the $8 billion project would create up to 2,500 jobs during construction and 300 long-term jobs, and generate billions of dollars in royalties and other revenues to be split between the federal and state governments.
The project has widespread support among lawmakers in the state. Alaska's bipartisan congressional delegation met with Biden and his advisers in early March to plead their case for the project, and Alaska Native lawmakers also met with Haaland to urge support.
Alaska state Rep. Josiah Patkotak, an independent from Utqiagvik, was elected as temporary speaker of the Alaska House on Jan. 17 in Juneau, Alaska.
Haaland visited the North Slope last spring just hours after state Rep. Josiah Aullaqsruaq Patkotak, a whaling co-captain along with his brother on their father's whaling crew, harvested a roughly 40-ton bowhead whale and spent hours pulling it on the ice from the Arctic Ocean at Utqiaġvik. He left the ice about 7 a.m. to be ready to meet with Haaland just two hours later.
For him, the juxtaposition of those activities underscored the dual life led by Alaska Natives and highlights the choices communities make for their survival.
"That's the walk our leaders have to walk," said Patkotak, an independent who supported Willow. "We maintain our culture and our lifestyle and our subsistence aspect where we're one with the land and animals, and the very next hour you may be having to conduct yourself, you know, in a manner that you're playing the Western world's game."
He met again with Haaland this month in Washington, D.C., where he invited leaders in the White House to visit Utqiagvik, "because it's our duty to tell our story so that we're able to strike that balance of both worlds."
"That's a reality for us," he said.
Biden greenlights Alaska drilling project and extends new protections to the state's North Slope
Biden greenlights Alaska drilling project and extends new protections to the state's North Slope
On March 13, the Biden Administration approved the controversial Willow oil project. The oil development, located on the North Slope of Alaska, has won support from local leaders and some tribes for the economic boost it could provide but has been criticized by environmentalists and other Alaska Native groups who are concerned about the scale of greenhouse gas emissions and impacts on local wildlife.
The new project is expected to support domestic oil supply and produce up to 180,000 barrels daily. The U.S. consumes nearly 20 million barrels of oil a day. ConocoPhillips also estimates it will provide 2,500 construction jobs and 300 long-term opportunities.
During his presidential campaign, President Biden said he would end drilling on federal land, a promise he has not kept. The Willow Project, located in the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve, has become one of the more controversial developments of his presidency.
The White House set a goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050 and prioritized legislation with environmental considerations like the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and the Inflation Reduction Act. At the same time, Biden has also sought to increase oil production to keep gas prices low.
During its 30-year lifespan, drilling from Willow is expected to produce nearly 280 million tons of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gas emissions. That's about as much as one year of emissions from 30% of all cars in the U.S.
The International Energy Agency said in 2021 that to reach net zero emissions by midcentury, no new fossil fuel infrastructure should be constructed.
Environmental concessions made alongside Willow's approval
The project's final approval is an adjustment of the original proposal. The Department of the Interior rejected two of the five drill sites, and ConocoPhillips will give up rights to 68,000 acres of leases it holds within the National Petroleum Reserve. The department expects the adjustments will reduce freshwater use and the impact of infrastructure development on migratory caribou populations.
The administration is proposing additional rules that would limit industrial development on more than 13 million acres across six special areas within the National Petroleum Reserve. The Department said that "the proposed rulemaking would help protect subsistence uses in the NPR-A, responding to Alaska Native communities who have relied on the land, water, and wildlife to support their way of life for thousands of years."
Part of the Willow project is located in the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area
An additional 2.8 million acres of offshore territory in the Beaufort Sea will also be unavailable for oil and gas leasing indefinitely.
Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan said Willow's approval was monumental for Alaska but expressed frustration at the special areas announcement. "The fact that this Willow Record of Decision comes with the announcement of future legally-dubious resource development restrictions on Alaska lands and waters is infuriating and demonstrates that the Biden Administration's unprecedented lock-up of our state will continue," Sullivan said in a statement.
The concessions haven't satisfied environmental groups either
"Protecting one area of the Arctic so you can destroy another doesn't make sense, and it won't help the people and wildlife who will be upended by the Willow project," Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement.
The Center for Biological Diversity is one of several environmental groups—including EarthJustice and Natural Resources Defense Council—that have said they will continue to fight the decision.
The National Petroleum Reserve is largely untouched by most human development. The area has also seen some of the fastest rising temperatures in the state according to the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy.
For the project, ConocoPhillips will build out gravel roads, drilling pads, and other infrastructure on top of permafrost, a frozen soil layer throughout Northern Alaska and the Arctic. Permafrost is currently thawing at an increased rate due to global warming.
The Department of the Interior noted that the North Slope's permafrost degradation is already happening in its environmental impact statement, and, beyond the environmental threats, it poses risks to the oil project itself. "Permafrost thawing and uneven settlement could cause damage to infrastructure such as gravel pads, roads, and pipelines. A shorter ice road season would affect the transport of materials and personnel that depend on ice roads," the report said.
