Broken Promises

The Willow Project was first introduced in October 2020 by ConocoPhillips, an energy company in Houston. It was later approved by the Biden Administration in March of 2023–a controversial opinion that sparked debate nationwide. The Willow Project is a decades-long, $8 billion oil drilling venture in Alaska’s North Slope in the National Petroleum Reserve. Biden’s approval of this project resulted in backlash from enraged environmentalist groups who felt betrayed by his failure to execute his 2020 campaign promise to end all new oil and gas drilling on federal lands. This decision forced many to ponder a difficult question: Is Biden’s support for the Willow Project truly justified?

The principal argument for many people's justification stems from economic benefits. Supporters claim Willow will generate jobs, boost domestic energy production, and alleviate America’s reliance on foreign countries for oil. Even some native groups have claimed this project will create a new source of revenue and increase funding for education and health care services.

Nagruk Harcharek, the president of the advocacy group Voice of the Arctic Iñupiat, contended in a letter to White House officials that the project will create an opportunity to invest in communities. The Bureau of Land Management assessed that it will make around $6 billion from taxes, where $1 billion of these taxes will help improve education, first responders, and hundreds of local jobs.

The Biden Administration claims their “hands were tied” in the decision process because Conoco already has valid leases in the area. John Leshy, the previous Interior Department’s solicitor under Bill Clinton, asserted that “the lease does not give Conoco the right to do whatever they want, but it does convey certain rights; therefore [the administration’s] options were limited by the lease rights.” If the Biden Administration plans to deter the project drastically or halt it altogether, it would likely result in losing a court case and receiving possible fines. Ultimately, Biden approved the project after reducing the original five drill pads to three.

However, as the implementation of Willow slowly closes in, the native populations living near the project site have become more distressed about the possible detrimental health and environmental impacts. Not only could Willow alter migration patterns and destroy habitats, but, according to Defenders of Wildlife, over the next 30 years, it could release 260 million metric tons of CO2 into the atmosphere. In hopes of ceasing the project, groups have sent more than 5.6 million letters to the Biden Administration. However, despite the countless efforts to terminate the project, it will be implemented.

Now the question remains: which is more essential - more money or our planet? Unfortunately, in our society, one cannot live without either. But, in the end, money is simply a social construct, a mere concept ingrained into the brains of humans to create a better society. Life, on the other hand, is more valuable than all the riches in the world: it is a cycle that can never be repaired if it breaks–something that can never be won back after it is lost. Humanity seems to have forgotten and taken for granted the value of life, causing us to teeter on the brink between life and death. No amount of economic surpluses or increases in employment opportunities can justify killing our home.

Michelle Cai ’23 and Allison Luo ‘23