Biden administration backs Alaska oil drilling project

U.S. President Joe Biden’s advisers have approved a draft allowing the U.S. energy corporation ConocoPhillips to drill oil wells in northwestern Alaska.

According to the project plan, ConocoPhillips Corporation will be allowed to drill in three locations in the Willow Field. Such a decision would produce about 600 million barrels of oil, but would lead to carbon dioxide emissions of about 280 million tons, which contradicts to the policy of transition to the so-called clean energy of the current U.S. president. The project has also drawn widespread criticism from environmental activists who insist that drilling in Alaska would be a climate disaster.

The drilling project is valued at $8 billion, making it one of the largest U.S. projects in the area. According to projections reported by Bloomberg, the drilling would produce up to 180,000 barrels per day, or 1.6% of all current U.S. production.

The decision is expected to be announced by the country’s Interior Department next week.

Alaska State Senator Dan Sullivan also advocated the development of oil production in Alaska, saying that the conflict in Ukraine revealed the strategic mistake the U.S. has made in energy, which has been “to focus so much on shutting down American energy production.”

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