Last month, the Biden administration released a decision on a major drilling project in the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska (NPR-A), approving three of the five drill sites in the Willow Project. This comes as a disappointment to environmentalists and people expecting the president to follow through on his campaign promises, since “as a candidate, President Biden pledged to end new federal oil and gas leasing.” Most Alaskan lawmakers approve of the project, arguing that it will create local jobs, with support also coming from Alaskan labor unions and Indigenous groups.
The administration touts the compromise as a win, as ConocoPhillips, the company in charge of the Willow Project, has a lease on the NPR-A that gives them “the right to develop, and strong legal standing to fight the government if it tries to block that work. If rejected, ConocoPhillips could have sued, potentially won billions of dollars at taxpayer expense, and still been able to develop the project anyway, legal experts have said.” The reduced approval also requires that ConocoPhillips “relinquish rights to approximately 68,000 acres of its existing leases in the NPR-A” and proposed limits to future development of the area, seeking maximum protection for 15.8 million acres of the total 23 million. However, as these are just proposed rules, these protections could easily be overturned by future administrations. In February, Alaskan House Representatives and Senators showed unanimous support for the project, with Republican senator Lisa Murkowski commenting “This is the latest and most visible demonstration of Alaskans’ strong, united, bipartisan support for this important project, building on support from Alaska Natives, union laborers, and countless others.”
The fossil fuel industry has rebounded from the pandemic, and its growth is expected to continue without policy limits. Mechanical Engineering student Bren DeLeon, who is researching the environmental effects of the oil industry as part of their senior design project commented, “It is just frustrating to see policies that encourage the continued use of oil when it is clear that its negative effects on the environments compound and get worse and worse over time, especially when there are other options.” One new development that may discourage the use of oil is the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) regulations for the auto industry to reduce the demand for fossil fuels. The EPA is expected to propose new rules that would require auto manufacturers to significantly increase their electric vehicle (EV) line-up, with the goal of two-thirds of all new cars sold being electric by 2032. The rules do not mandate a certain number of EVs, though the emissions standards are set so low as to require that the majority of new cars sold would be electric. While these may appease those frustrated with the Willow Project approval, it remains to be seen whether the auto industry can meet these aggressive demands, if they aren’t revised by a future administration first.
