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A massive oil and gas project in Alaska, if approved, would negate all of the greenhouse gas reduction goals President Biden has set for America's public lands. The Washington Post reports that a new analysis by the Center for American Progress looked at the potential carbon output of ConocoPhillips' Willow project, which aims to extract more than 500 million barrels of oil from the Arctic over 30 years.
According to the Bureau of Land Management's estimates, Willow would release more than 250 metric tons of carbon dioxide over its lifetime. In contrast, President Biden has promised to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030, and permit 25 gigawatts of new onshore renewable energy on public lands by 2025. CAP found those new projects would prevent 129 million metric tons of carbon emissions.
In other words, the Willow project would release nearly twice as much carbon into the atmosphere as President Biden aims to save on public lands and waters.
“The Biden administration has set ambitious renewable and climate commitments, and I think they need to recognize that this project could have a legacy-defining impact just due to its carbon emissions alone,” said Jenny Rowland-Shea, CAP's deputy director for public lands.
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If the staggering changes Phoenix has undergone since I left as a child prove anything, it is that we can change again. The rate at which this community, and the global one, has shifted and adapted to new technologies and lifestyles in recent decades is impressive. The challenge now is to make similar strides in a not-quite opposite, but a different direction.”
