Biden Authorizes Alaska Drilling

Biden+Authorizes+Alaska+Drilling

Victor Parent, Journalist, graphic artist

Monday 13th, the Biden administration approved the drilling project that will be situated in Alaska, which leads to many pros and cons.

The Willow project, led by ConocoPhillips, will be situated in the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska. The plan would be a 23 million acres area in the largest land that is not disturbed by people in the United States. This project will make around 600 million barrels(1 barrel=158.987L) of oil during its life and will produce 180 000 barrels per day during its peak.

The task may seem bad for the environment. Still, it would be supposed to limit the drilling in other areas in Alaska and the Arctic ocean, even though some people are not convinced about that information. An impact of that job that will surely be an issue is how the people and caribous’ lifestyle will be affected. Some caribou and some people living there might have to displace their houses or even relocate, or the caribou may have no “house” after this. This move ensures that some habitats for whales, seals, polar bears and other species “will be protected in perpetuity from extractive development″, the White House said in a statement.

An environmental group disagreed with the fact that the protections didn’t go far enough and the government should stop drilling the oil and gas development to help the planet to slow climate change. “Protecting one area of the Arctic so you can destroy another doesn’t make sense, and it won’t help the people and wildlife who will be upended by the Willow project,” said Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.