(CNN) The Biden administration is soon set to approve ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project, a major oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, according to a congressional source familiar with the details. The decision will be announced next week, the source confirmed.
The expected approval is a victory for Alaska’s bipartisan congressional delegation and a coalition of Alaska Native tribes and groups that hail the drilling venture as a much-needed new source of revenue and jobs. for the remote region. It was a major blow to climate groups and Alaska Natives who opposed Willow, who argued that the project would undermine the president’s ambitious climate goals and pose health and environmental risks.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre pushed back on Friday, saying that no final decision on the project had been made, and that the US Department of the Interior would make an “independent decision on the Willow Project. “
“No final decisions have been made – anyone who says there is a final decision is wrong,” Jean-Pierre said. “President Biden has delivered the most aggressive climate agenda of any US president in history and spurred an unprecedented expansion of clean energy.”
A spokeswoman for the Interior Department declined to comment. Dennis Nuss, a spokesman for ConocoPhillips, told CNN that there was no record of a decision on the Willow project shared with the company and could not comment.
It was not immediately clear whether the administration approved a version of the project with three drilling pads, or a smaller version with two drilling pads. Earlier this month, White House officials floated the option of a smaller, two-drill-pad project to try to assuage concerns among environmental groups. And in the final weeks and days leading up to the project’s approval, several completed versions of a record of the decision were circulated among White House and Interior staff, the source said.
White House senior adviser on climate and clean energy implementation John Podesta told CNN on Thursday that the White House climate office “remains in communication” with the Interior Department about the project but insisted that the Interior is the will make the final decision.
On Friday, Alaska’s congressional delegation met with Biden and senior White House and Interior staff. During the meeting, Alaska lawmakers argued that the oil drilling project represented a rational shift away from fossil fuels toward clean energy and said it would benefit Alaska Native communities in remote areas. North Slope – where food and fuel are more expensive.
Aerial view of Nuiqsut, Alaska, on May 28, 2019.
“We made our case,” Alaska Sen. Dan Sullivan, a Republican, told CNN. “They’re in listening mode, for the most part.”
Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, the federally owned area where the project is planned, holds up to 600 million barrels of oil. By the administration’s own estimates, the Willow project would generate enough oil to release 9.2 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon pollution a year — the equivalent of adding 2 million gas-powered cars on the roads.
Alaska Natives who support the project say it will help bring much-needed jobs and income to the remote region, as well as help lower astronomical costs for fuel.
Nagruk Harcharek, president of the advocacy group Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, said in a recent news conference that the project has “majority consensus” among Alaska Natives on the North Slope. “We use the jobs provided by projects like this,” Harcharek said. “[They] provide income for families on the North Slope.”
Some Alaska Natives who live closer to the planned project, including city officials and members of the Nuiqsut tribe, say they are deeply concerned about the health and environmental impacts of a a large oil development very close to their village.
Environmental advocates are expected to challenge the project in court. Environmental law group Earthjustice is preparing a lawsuit against the project; Their legal argument includes saying that the Biden administration’s authority to protect resources on Alaska’s public lands includes taking steps to reduce carbon pollution that warms the planet — and arguing that Willow’s carbon pollution will eventually add to that.
“If true, the Biden administration has betrayed its core commitment to stop climate change,” Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen said in a statement. “We hope the Biden administration makes the right decision to fire Willow, and if it makes the wrong decision, we are committed to challenging it.”
This story has been updated with additional details.
