Willow Project: Federal judge denies preliminary injunction on Alaska oil-drilling project

(CNN) A federal judge in Alaska has refused to block progress on the controversial Willow oil drilling project, and lawsuits against the project are ongoing.

The Biden administration last month approved ConocoPhillips’ massive Willow oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope. The project has sparked a wave of online opposition in the weeks leading up to the Biden administration approving it. This included his over a million letters written to the White House protesting the project and his over five million signatures on a Change.org petition.

Shortly after the Biden administration approved the project, environmental law group Earthjustice and Alaska law firm Trustees filed complaints against the Department of the Interior and its senior officials, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and other federal agencies. I filed.

The lawsuit requested that the judge grant a preliminary injunction that would halt construction as the court reviews the case.

Federal Judge Sharon Gleeson of the United States District Court for Alaska on Monday ruled in favor of the federal government and oil company ConocoPhillips, allowing construction of the project to continue as court proceedings progress, and will continue to do so in the coming years. I mentioned the activities scheduled for the month. — Construction of infrastructure on and around the site — “Does not include oil and gas extraction.”

In the lawsuit, environmental groups allege that the Biden administration’s environmental analysis, which concluded that the project would not have a significant impact on the environment or the climate crisis, was flawed and violated federal law.

The lawsuit ties the project’s potential climate impacts to endangered species, including polar bears, that live in the area where the Willow Project will be built. A lawyer for Earthjustice wrote that the Endangered Species Act consultation underlying Willow’s approval was “illegal because it fails to consider the impact of carbon emissions on endangered species.”

The federal agency “failed to consider how increased greenhouse gas emissions from Willow would affect the survival and recovery of these ice-dependent species and their critical habitats,” lawyers said. is writing

In the short term, however, Gleason said the potential environmental harm during the construction phase of the project does not outweigh the economic and other harm that could be done if the preliminary injunction were granted. I concluded.

“The court further ruled that plaintiffs failed to demonstrate that irreparable harm to the members would likely occur if winter 2023 construction activities proceeded,” Gleason said in Monday’s decision. wrote.

Eric Greif, deputy managing attorney for Earthjustice’s Alaska regional office, said in a statement that although this was not the outcome they had hoped for, “our legal battle continues.” rice field.

“We will do everything in our power to protect our climate, wildlife and people from this dangerous carbon bomb,” Grafe said. “Climate scientists warn it will take less than seven years to fix climate change, and we cannot afford 30 years of oil drilling just to open the door to extracting fossil fuels.”

ConocoPhillips and the federal government argue that environmental analyzes conducted by federal officials have shown that decades of oil projects do not cause serious damage to the climate and environment.

The region where the project is planned has up to 600 million barrels of oil. Since the project has not yet been built, it will be years before that oil reaches the market. The Biden administration’s environmental analysis concluded that the project would produce enough oil to emit 9.2 million tonnes of carbon pollution annually that contributes to global warming.

Environmental groups have successfully argued against the Willow Project before the judge assigned to the case. In 2021, Gleason revoked ConocoPhillips’ federal Willow permit, saying the environmental review conducted by the Trump administration for the project did not consider major climate and environmental impacts on local wildlife. .

Gleeson said at the time that the Trump administration’s review did not include sufficient analysis of the project’s potential global warming emissions and omitted details about the project’s potential impact on polar bears. Said there was

Some Indigenous groups vehemently opposed the project over environmental and health concerns, but the project was also supported by Alaska Natives who said it would bring jobs and tax revenue to remote areas.