Joe Biden enraged environmentalists in March when he gave the go-ahead to allow the $8 billion Willow Project to drill on Arctic land. The greenies felt that Biden had betrayed a campaign promise of “no new drilling, period” on federal lands.
They needn’t have worried. Biden has never wavered from his goal of destroying the fossil fuel industry, nor has he ever deviated from his position that the U.S. will be weaned off of fossil fuels even if it costs tens of thousands of jobs and an untold amount of pain to consumers.
The Biden administration announced that it would prohibit drilling on 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska. Furthermore, the administration is canceling all drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
“We have a responsibility to protect this treasured region for all ages,” Biden said in a statement. “Canceling all remaining oil and gas leases issued under the previous administration in the Arctic Refuge and protecting more than 13 million acres in the western Arctic will help preserve our Arctic lands and wildlife, while honoring the culture, history, and enduring wisdom of Alaska Natives who have lived on these lands since time immemorial.”
The administration has just empowered Saudi Arabia, Russia, and the rest of OPEC+, which just announced yesterday that the cut in production that is driving the price rise at American pumps will continue through the end of the year. Benchmark Brent crude traded Tuesday above $90 a barrel after trading at $75-85 bbl for the last year.
Deirdre Shelly, campaigns director for the Sunrise Movement, said young people remained angry about the Willow decision and that the new Arctic protections did not make up for it. But she did praise the new announcements as “exactly the sort of thing young people and people in the climate movement want to see from the president.”
Yet the decision carries some political risk, because oil prices are on the rise and Republicans are accusing Mr. Biden of harming the country’s energy independence, despite the fact that United States oil production is poised to break records this year.
“Today’s announcement sets a concerning precedent for the future of oil and natural gas leasing on federal lands, said Holly Hopkins, a vice president at the American Petroleum Institute. Hopkins said that Biden was sending “mixed signals” about drilling in the United States.
Indeed, Joe Biden has been talking out of both sides of his mouth on oil drilling. Remember last summer when he accused the oil companies of price gouging and not drilling for oil fast enough? Now that he needs environmentalists to get behind him for his re-election campaign, it’s safe to vilify the oil companies again.
On his first day in office, Mr. Biden signed an executive order halting Arctic drilling and in 2021 suspended the leases that had been granted by the Trump administration, citing problems with environmental reviews. Last month a federal judge rejected a challenge by the state of Alaska, saying the federal government had the authority to suspend the leases while it conducted an additional environmental analysis.
That review found “multiple legal deficiencies” in the analysis that had been conducted by the Trump administration. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said two of the leases in the refuge had been canceled and refunded at the request of the leaseholders. The remaining leases held by the Alaska development authority covered about 365,000 acres in the coastal plain and were rescinded Wednesday.
“There are some places where oil and gas drilling and industrial development simply do not belong,” Haaland said. “With today’s action, no one will have rights to drill for oil in one of the most sensitive landscapes on earth. Climate change is the crisis of our lifetime, and we cannot ignore the disproportionate impacts being felt in the Arctic.”
What is the reason for the cut-off of development? Is it climate change? Or is it the “sensitive landscape”? Haaland couldn’t seem to make up her mind, so she just used both.
This fight is by no means over. The Alaska development corporation has already said they will take the Interior Department to court, and given the massive amount of oil — 11 billion bbl of crude — there are going to be other parties to that suit as well.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member