Dear Friend,

We recently received a partial victory in our case against the Willow Project.

Hundreds of thousands of Earthjustice supporters took action to stop the Willow Project — a massive Arctic oil drilling proposal that would release more than 200 million metric tons of greenhouse gases. When the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the project, Earthjustice sued. 

Friend, we are so grateful for the advocates, donors, and partners who joined us in this fight.Now, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the BLM unlawfully approved the Willow Project and must reconsider its decision. This reverses an earlier Alaska District Court ruling that initially concluded the approval was lawful.

However, the court of appeals stopped short of halting construction of the project. That means Willow is allowed to proceed while the BLM reconsiders its decision to approve the project. 

Our takeaway:

This ruling validates what we’ve been fighting to prove in court for over four years: The BLM violated the law when it approved this project — a climate catastrophe that millions took to social media to oppose. Willow would industrialize a sensitive and irreplaceable part of the Arctic and produce hundreds of millions of tons of greenhouse gas emissions for decades to come. 

How we got here:

2020: Earthjustice sued the Trump administration for greenlighting the Willow Project without accounting for its full climate impact. 
2021: We won. A federal court tossed the Trump-era permits for the project.
2023: The Biden administration reapproved the project, despite overwhelming public opposition and its own climate commitments. We sued again. We lost in district court, then filed an appeal.
2025: Now, we’ve secured a partial victory in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, forcing the BLM to reconsider its approval of the Willow Project.

The fossil fuel industry sees Willow as the gateway to a whole new hub of Arctic oil development. We see Willow as a climate and environmental disaster:

Willow would be the largest domestic oil drilling project on public lands.

It would carve up public lands with hundreds of miles of pipelines and roads, an airstrip, and a gravel mine — threatening polar bears, migratory birds, caribou, and the health of nearby communities.

There is no room in a rational climate future for the years of carbon pollution Willow is calculated to unleash.

This fight is not over:

This court decision concludes that the BLM acted unlawfully when approving the project. In a perfect world, that would mean that BLM would seriously reconsider the project itself, including considering significantly less harmful alternatives to this massive oil project. But we don’t live in a perfect world. 

The Trump administration has loudly proclaimed their goal of selling off public lands to oil drillers, frackers, mining corporations, logging companies, and other extractive industries. They have fixed their sights specifically on the Arctic, including expanding oil development even beyond Willow into some of the Arctic’s most ecologically and culturally important areas. 

In other words, “drill, baby drill” — environmental laws be damned.

To which we say, “we’ll see you in court.”

Earthjustice won 85% of our decisions in cases against the first Trump administration. We can’t promise to win every case, but we can promise to keep fighting no matter the odds.

We represent our clients for free, so donors like you power every single one of our victories. Donate today and support our lawsuits to protect our public lands, our communities, and our future.DONATE TODAY: [link removed]

Thank you for your ongoing partnership in these fights.

Sincerely,
Erik Grafe
Deputy Managing Attorney, Alaska Office
Earthjustice


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