Alaska’s U.S. senators and several Alaska Native leaders on Feb. 14 urged the federal government to approve a major oil project on the petroleum-rich North Slope, casting the project as economically critical for Indigenous communities in the region and important for the nation’s energy security.
The Biden administration “damn well better not kill the project, period,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski told reporters on a video conference.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management earlier this month released an environmental review for ConocoPhillips Alaska’s Willow project that listed as the preferred alternative an option calling for up to three drill sites initially, compared to the five that had been favored by the company. Project proponents, including Alaska’s congressional delegation, have expressed support for the three-site plan. But Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan said any further limits on the project could kill it.
The Bureau of Land Management noted that its listing of a preferred alternative “does not constitute a commitment or decision.” The U.S. Interior Department said separately that it had “substantial concerns” about the project and the report’s preferred alternative, “including direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions and impacts to wildlife and Alaska Native subsistence.” The Bureau of Land Management is in the Interior Department.
Although Alaska’s top elected leaders, including the governor, are united in support for Willow, there is disagreement about the project. Leaders in Nuiqsut, population about 500, 36 miles from the Willow project, have expressed concerns. So have environmentalists, who say approval would lead to further development and be inconsistent with President Joe Biden’s climate goals.
Nuiqsut Mayor Rosemary Ahtuangaruak said there are “many who would like to say everybody in Alaska supports oil and gas development. Well, for our village, this development is in the wrong area.”
“Our concerns are real. It’s about our way of life, the life, health and safety of our village,” she said.
Other regional officials see it differently. Taqulik Hepa, director of the Department of Wildlife Management for the North Slope Borough, said taxes levied on oil and gas infrastructure have enabled the borough to invest in public facilities, support local schools and provide police, fire and other services.
Hepa said the borough and its residents are “keenly aware of the need to balance responsible oil development and the subsistence lifestyle that has sustained us.”
Nagruk Harcharek, president of the group Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, whose members include leaders from across much of the North Slope, said there is “majority consensus” in the region in favor of the project, calling Willow a “lifeline” for residents. He said there are limited economic development opportunities in the region, which makes approval of the Willow project important.
Biden earlier this month said the U.S. would need oil “for at least another decade.″
Murkowski said there is a move to transition toward a “different energy future” but said Biden needs to “recheck his facts, respectfully. … We are decades, decades away from a time that we would be beyond oil resources,” she said. “The need is very, very much still there.”
The proposed Willow project is in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. ConocoPhillips has said it could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day at its peak. It is expected to create up to 2,500 jobs during construction and an estimated 300 permanent jobs, along with generating billions of dollars in revenues for federal, state and local governments, the company has said.
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