Say it ain’t so, Joe..After years of burnishing his so-called green credentials at the expense of his friends and allies — namely Canada — US President Joe Biden gave the green light to a controversial oil project on the Alaskan North Slope that’s sure to alienate even his staunchest supporters. In fact, it already has..The US Department of the Interior on Monday gave its approval to ConocoPhillips’ Willow project covering 23 million acres on federal land in the Alaska National Wildlife Reserve (ANWR). The $8 billion development aims to recover some 600 million barrels of oil, reaching a peak of 180,000 barrels per day (bpd) — roughly the size of a Canadian oil sands plant — over the next 30 years..This despite the fact Biden campaigned on a pledge of “no new drilling on federal lands, period” in the 2020 election. This, despite the fact he cancelled the Keystone XL pipeline — which would have pumped 800,000 bpd — on his first day in office..In its decision the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said the decision “strikes a balance” by upholding ConocoPhillips’ longstanding Arctic leases while reducing the scope of the proposed project from five sites to three. Still, the project will require the construction of hundreds of kilometres of pipelines and a central processing facility. Conoco’s has even proposed to “refreeze” thawed tundra..It comes with the caveat there will be no more oil development in the Arctic Ocean and promises to set aside even more federal land for wildlife preserves. That wasn’t enough to assuage Biden’s Green Coalition, however, that vowed to duke it out in court..Predictably, their immediate reaction was outrage even though the project is supported by Alaska lawmakers — including Democrats — and a coalition of native groups. Even Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, chimed in, saying the decision ignores “the voices of the people of Nuiqsut, our frontline communities, and the irrefutable science that says we must stop building projects like this to slow the ever more devastating impacts of climate change.”.Critics further complained Biden approved more drilling projects on federal land than his predecessor, Donald Trump, did over four years in office and the Willow project will emit more greenhouse gases than Belgium..The simple fact is Biden finds himself in a bind over Russia’s war in Ukraine while his European allies scramble to find new energy sources, particularly US natural gas. To stabilize gasoline prices ahead of the US midterm elections, Biden authorized the withdrawal of almost 240 million barrels from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, or more than a million barrels per day in the already flooded Gulf Coast. In February he authorized 26 million more..The US Gulf Coast is home to the largest concentration of oil refineries in the world, drawing supplies over land and sea from all corners of the globe, and now Alaska. It also happened to be the final destination for a third of Canada’s oil output, almost 800,000 bpd in 2019 according to Canada’s Energy Regulator..Canada’s biggest competitors aren’t American oil producers, but the US government itself..Little wonder Biden rejected Keystone XL — he doesn’t need it.
