Today, I am going to be venturing a bit off-topic of my normal discussions in light of a life-changing deal: The Willow Project. I am sure many of us have heard of this within the past few weeks but may not be aware of it to the fullest extent.
This project is taking place in Alaska, where an oil reserve (National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska) is located, run by ConocoPhillips, Alaska’s largest oil producer. This has ultimately been approved by the Biden Administration because the Trump Administration has pushed for this project and already put it through numerous courts during the end of Trump’s term. Although many people hoped Biden would shut this project down, the most he has done to this project is decrease the number of pads from five to three, which will cut back on the amount of drilling that will occur, but still allows 90% of drilling.
The Willow Project’s main purpose is to drill oil and gas in Alaska, which would be the largest single oil drilling ever on federal land and would add 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the Earth within the next 30 years, along with add more Greenhouse Gas emissions than any other project in America. It will take up a total of 499 acres with hundreds of miles of airstrips, pipelines, roads, gravel mines, and a processing facility in the Arctic Alaska.
Hearing all of this, you may wonder why so many people support this project despite all of the environmental issues it comes with. Well, the answer to that is money and power.
Representative Mary Peltola is the first Alaska native elected into Congress and heavily agrees with the Willow Project for the sake of the economy. She has said that the economy of Alaska has had no growth, and is even in the bottom to near last of economic health. This project would implement many jobs and also increase revenue because of how dependent Alaska is on oil and gas.
Another reason people are pro-Willow Project is so we can have our own dependency on oil without having to rely on other countries that have weak economies and environments.
Yes, there are benefits for the economy if this is implemented, yet the impacts this project places on the environment are irreversible. As of right now, we need to cut down on carbon dioxide emissions by half before 2030 if we want to reverse the damage we have done. However, with this new project in place, we would only be adding over 250 million metric tons to our Earth, along with destroying species and their homes such as polar bears and caribou.
There is no need for an economy if we don’t have an Earth in the first place. The first step to making change is by listening and informing ourselves and others about the current issues that are occurring.