A coalition of environmental organizations filed a lawsuit Wednesday to stop an Alaska oil drilling project that President Biden signed off on earlier this week, likening the $8 billion enterprise to a “carbon bomb.”
Green groups had criticized Biden for reneging on campaign pledges to spice up alternate types of energy and end drilling on public lands as he considered the Willow Project, which could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day.
“There isn’t any query that the administration possessed the legal authority to stop Willow — yet it selected to not,” Erik Grafe, deputy managing attorney in Earthjustice’s Alaska regional office, said in a press release.
“It greenlit this carbon bomb without adequately assessing its climate impacts or weighing its options to limit the damage and say no. The climate crisis is one among the best challenges we face, and President Biden has promised to do all he can to satisfy the moment,” the statement continued.
Earthjustice sued on behalf of several organizations — including the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace USA, Defenders of Wildlife and Friends of the Earth.
The suit says the project “undermines President Biden’s guarantees to slash greenhouse-gas emissions in half by 2030 and transition america to scrub energy.”
The environmental groups argue that the ConocoPhillips drilling project on Alaska’s Northern Slope will add about “260 million metric tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere over the following 30 years.”
The lawsuit further claimed the Willow Project will “cause irreparable harm to the environment, Arctic wildlife and nearby individuals who rely on the land for subsistence.”
ConocoPhillips has said that together with the 180,000 barrels of oil a day, the project would create greater than 1,800 jobs during construction, 300 long-term jobs and generate billions of dollars in royalty payments and tax revenue for Alaska and the federal government.
Biden’s approval, which got here Monday, allows ConocoPhillips to develop three drilling sites on federal land within the National Petroleum Reserve – Alaska.
At the identical time, the corporate may have to provide up rights to about 68,000 acres within the reserve.
