Friend,

On Alaska's North Slope, just south of the Arctic Ocean, lies a coastal plain that is remote, very difficult for people to reach, and teeming with life from migratory birds to caribou to polar bears.

ConocoPhillips, Alaska's largest crude oil producer, has proposed a massive drilling project that would devastate this irreplaceable wilderness.1

Friend, you and I know that it's just not worth spoiling the Arctic for a little more oil. Sign our petition today urging ConocoPhillips to drop its ill-fated "carbon bomb" drilling project.

The drilling proposal, called the Willow Project, is aimed at the Western Arctic area in Alaska. The region houses Teshekpuk Lake, the calving ground of the Teshekpuk caribou herd, and is home to wildlife such as polar bears and many migratory birds.

The rising temperatures associated with climate change have made fossil fuel extraction in places such as the Arctic more difficult and costly due to melting permafrost. So ConocoPhillips plans to refreeze the tundra using "chillers" and then proceed to drill it for oil.

The proposed 30 years of oil drilling from the Willow Project will extract 500 million barrels of petroleum from this snowy sanctuary, and the project will single-handedly release annual emissions equivalent to 66 new coal-fired power plants operating in a given year. Hence the label "carbon bomb."2

We're already urging the Department of the Interior to stop the approval process for this project in its tracks. But right now, you can join thousands of voices in calling directly on ConocoPhillips to abandon the drilling plan before it spoils the Arctic forever. Take action today.

If approved, the Willow Project will also require new infrastructure such as drill sites, miles of gravel roads, bridges, an airstrip, hundreds of miles of ice roads and a gravel mine in this fragile ecosystem.

So even before the oil drilling begins, the construction will fragment wildlife habitats and put animals at risk in their own homes.

Stopping the Willow Project will also mean preventing the existential threats it poses to the Iñupiat Peoples, whose traditional food and cultural practices are tied to the region's resources and whose ancestors have lived in this area for centuries.3

By standing together against senseless oil drilling in the Arctic, we can protect land, wildlife and so much more. Add your name to our petition today.

Thank you,

Ellen Montgomery

1. Ellen Montgomery, "The Willow Project: A carbon bomb aimed at the Western Arctic," Environment America, July 1, 2022.
2. Ellen Montgomery, "The Willow Project: A carbon bomb aimed at the Western Arctic," Environment America, July 1, 2022.
3. Ellen Montgomery, "The Willow Project: A carbon bomb aimed at the Western Arctic," Environment America, July 1, 2022.