The Willow Project and its impacts on Indigenous communities
What is the Willow Project?
Just yesterday, the Biden administration approved The Willow Project, an $8 billion drilling project near the Indigenous village of Utqiagvik, Alaska, as part of oil company ConocoPhillips. The plan received final approval from the Trump administration, but was halted in 2021 by a federal judge in Alaska, who argued that the environmental impacts were not fully addressed. The Biden Administration has now officially signed off on approval for the Willow Project, drawing backlash from youth, environmental, and Indigenous advocates, who argue that this project will have detrimental impacts, ranging from speeding up the climate breakdown and impacting nearby animals and wildlife to causing food shortages in nearby Indigenous communities.
This project is the largest oil drilling project in the US to date, producing an estimated 576 million barrels of oil over 30 years, with around 180,000 barrels of crude per day.
What are the environmental impacts of the Willow Project?
“This extraction, which ConocoPhillips has said may, ironically, involve refreezing the rapidly thawing Arctic permafrost to stabilize drilling equipment, would create one of the largest “carbon bombs” on US soil, potentially producing more than twice as many emissions than all renewable energy projects on public lands by 2030 would cut combined.” (The Guardian)
According to CNN, this project could produce enough oil to release around 9.2 million metric tons of carbon into the air, which is roughly equivalent to adding 2 million gas cars to the roads. Overall, this project is expected to create about 260 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions, the equivalent of creating around 70 new coal-fired power plants.
In 2020, Biden vowed to end new oil and gas drilling on public lands and waters during his presidential campaign. As a result, many are calling Biden out, saying that this project undermines his climate agenda and campaign promise.
“Approving the Willow Project is an unacceptable departure from President Biden’s promises to the American people on climate and environmental justice. “After all that this administration has done to advance climate action and environmental justice, it is heartbreaking to see a decision that we know will poison Arctic communities and lock in decades of climate pollution we simply cannot afford.” -Lena Moffitt, executive director of Evergreen Action.
Impacts on Indigenous communities:
The mayor of the town of Nuiqsuit, Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, whose community is closest to the Willow Project has expressed concern over the impacts of this development on caribou and community member’s lifestyles.
"As oil is exported and sent around the globe, our communities in the Arctic are left to contend with the health impacts of pollution as well as the devastation that comes from dramatic changes to the land like sea ice melt, permafrost thaw, and coastal erosion.” (Native Movement)
According to the Native Movement, a grassroots Indigenous Alaska-Based organization, developers of the Willow Project have done minimal research on the impacts of this project on the Teshekpuk Lake caribou herd, which are a vital food source for many residents of the nearby Nuiqsut community. Members of the community have spoken out in the past about how direct impacts of oil and gas extraction on their communities have caused sick fish, malnourished caribou, and toxic air quality. They also expressed concern over a lack of adequate consultation beforehand, the significant impact on the health of community members, and the detrimental loss of access to food resources. “The detrimental amounts of pollutants and contaminants caused by drilling and extraction projects is happening, literally, in the back yards of Iñupiaq peoples and without their full and informed consent.” -The Native Movement
Some excerpts from Charlie Sollie Hugo’s open letter to the Biden Administration read:
Our communities have traded with, and supported, one another since time immemorial. Our people, the Nunamiut people, have depended on the Caribou and the places they roam, from here to Nuiqsut and beyond, for thousands of years and to this The Barren Ground Caribou are of immense importance to our people, to our survival, and to the preservation of our culture and tradition. Caribou have been the primary diet of our people since time immemorial. We have been hunting and using Caribou for thousands of years to feed and clothe our people and to make tools and sinew to build and maintain our equipment and our clothing. Caribou are vital to our culture, to our livelihood, and to our physical and spiritual wellbeing.
We are deeply concerned that impacts to Caribou from the Willow project could reduce the Caribou that are available for our hunters near our community, and in our traditional hunting and trading grounds, which includes the areas affected by the Willow project. We think the Willow project and the projects that could be built from Willow could continue to harm Caribou, to deflect them, and to contribute to the decreasing number of Caribou available for our people.
Some Alaska Native tribal organizations have expressed support, including the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope and the Alaska Federation of Natives. The deal will make it “possible for our community to continue our traditions, while strengthening the economic foundation of our region for decades to come,” according to Nagruk Harcharek, president of the Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat group. However, many local environmental and Indigenous groups, including the community of Nuiqsut that is the closest to this project argue that any jobs and money the project brings in the short term will be negated by the environmental devastation in the long run.
Sources:
https://www.the-sun.com/news/7592001/what-is-willow-project/
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/mar/13/alaska-willow-project-approved-oil-gas-biden
