The Willow Project is a $6 billion proposal from ConocoPhillips to drill oil and gas in Alaska. A 23 million-acre area on the state’s North Slope that is the largest tract of undisturbed public land in the United States. U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and representative Mary Sattler Peltola thanked members of the Alaska House and Alaska Senate for passing a unanimous resolution supporting the project. President Biden has long signaled support for the project, but those in his administration and their very vocal extreme environmentalist supporters aren’t on board, we shouldn’t be either. This project will harm the planet and the living environment on it. By the administration’s own estimates, the project would generate enough oil to release 9.2 million metric tons of planet-warming carbon pollution in just one year-equivalent to adding 2 million gas powered cars onto our roads. 

The rising temperatures associated with climate change have made fossil fuel extraction in the arctic more difficult and costly due to melting permafrost. ConocoPhillips plans to use “chillers” to refreeze the tundra and then proceed to drill the oil. The Willow Project will extract 500 million barrels of petroleum and release annual emissions equivalent to 76 new coal fired power plants operating in a single year. The Willow Project will harm the fragile Arctic ecosystem by fragmenting habitats. The project requires bridges and gravel roads. The construction and transportation involved alone will harm the wildlife well before any oil will even be extracted. Along with the planet itself and wildlife, the pollutants the project will emit are going to be a major threat to public health and safety. From methane that leaks from the production equipment to the trucks transporting the materials to oil wells, the Willow Project’s pollutants can cause serious cardiovascular, kidney, and chronic respiratory problems.

We cannot let this project continue, it will do more harm than good, by signing this petition with your personal email you can help stop this. https://www.change.org/p/stop-the-willow-project 

Sources: https://environmentamerica.org/articles/what-is-the-willow-project-a-ticking-carbon-bomb/ 

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/willow-oil-gas-project-alaska-sparks-green-opposition-2023-03-03/