Judge allows work to proceed on climate-bomb Willow project
ANCHORAGE, ALASKA (April 3, 2023) – U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason today denied a request preliminary injunction that would have blocked ConocoPhillips from mining gravel or building gravel roads while the court considers the merits of a lawsuit filed by The Wilderness Society and partner organizations who are challenging the Biden administration’s approval of the Willow oil project.
Gleason ruled in 2021 that the Trump administration failed to evaluate the project’s negative impacts on wildlife and the impact that burning so much oil would have on the world’s climate. Despite few changes to the Willow Master Development Plan since the 2021 ruling, the federal Bureau of Land Management approved the project last month.
In response to today’s news, The Wilderness Society issued the following statement from its senior regional director for Alaska, Karlin Itchoak:
“This is a profoundly disappointing decision. Willow poses a serious threat to air quality and subsistence resources for Indigenous communities in the region—as well as the world’s climate—and ConocoPhillips should not be allowed to begin work on a destructive project that was poorly evaluated by the Bureau of Land Management. We will continue to fight with all means at our disposal.
“Willow would result in the release of more than 280 million metric tons of greenhouse gases over its 30-year lifespan,” Itchoak added. “The Biden administration needs to thoroughly review its practices and change the way it approaches drilling for oil on public lands if it has any hope of meeting its own commitments and leading on the kind of fundamental shift in energy policy that a livable future demands.”
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The Wilderness Society is the leading conservation organization uniting people to care for America’s wild places. Founded in 1935, and now with more than one million members and supporters, The Wilderness Society has led the effort to permanently protect 111 million acres of wilderness and to ensure sound management of our shared national lands. www.wilderness.org.
