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Earlier this month, ConocoPhillips, the company behind the massive Willow oil and gas project in the Arctic, posted a document on a federal website seeking approval to conduct seismic surveys to examine oil and gas reservoirs of an area that extends beyond Willow’s boundaries.
Earthjustice, an environmental law firm that has filed a lawsuit to block the controversial drilling project, sent an email to journalists warning, “Now that Willow has won approval, ConocoPhillips appears to be taking steps toward expanding its operations.” Last Thursday ConocoPhillips quietly posted a replacement document in which the sentence noting seismic tests would identify new areas was removed.
“This seismic application is troublesome, particularly in light of how ConocoPhillips continually gets what it wants,” said Bridget Psarianos, senior staff attorney with Trustees for Alaska, which is representing environmental groups in a second lawsuit challenging the Willow project approval. Psarianos noted that the Willow approval required the company to limit its size from what it had originally sought. However, the company “came back with a seismic application that seeks to explore those very same lands” that had been removed from Willow’s scope. “This needs to stop,” Psarianos added.
A judge is expected to rule in early November on the two lawsuits brought by environmental groups seeking to overturn the approval of the Willow project. The groups argue that the Biden administration failed to adequately assess environmental impacts of the project, including how it would worsen climate change.
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The consolidation that they’re accomplishing with their gouging proves that anything decent Big Oil has ever said about taking emissions seriously was a lie.”
