Federal judge rules Willow Project construction can move forward
A federal judge in Alaska has declined to block progress on the controversial Willow oil drilling project while lawsuits against the project proceed.
That's while two separate lawsuits filed by environmental and Indigenous groups to stop it from moving through the court system. They had asked the judge to stop ConocoPhillips from the project until the cases are decided.
The lawsuits both argue the Biden administration's environmental analysis violates federal law. Environmental law group Earthjustice wrote that the Endangered Species Act consultations underlying Willow’s approval “are unlawful, because they fail to consider the impact of carbon emissions on threatened species.”
The Biden administration approved ConocoPhillips’ massive Willow oil drilling project last month. The project galvanized a groundswell of online opposition in the weeks leading up to the Biden administration approving it, including more than 1 million letters written to the White House protesting the project and a Change.org petition with more than 5 million signatures.
The ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project is a massive and decades long oil drilling venture on Alaska’s North Slope in the National Petroleum Reserve, which is owned by the federal government.
The area where the project is planned holds up to 600 million barrels of oil. That oil would take years to reach the market since the project has yet to be constructed.
