Haaland Defends Willow Project, Says U.S. Won't End Oil Drilling

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland defended her department’s approval of the contentious Willow oil project on Friday, saying that despite President Joe Biden’s campaign promise to end new drilling on federal lands, “We’re not going to turn the faucet off and say we’re not drilling anymore,″ Matthew Daly reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Photo Insert: “We’re not going to say we’re not going to use gas and oil. That’s not reality,″ Haaland said.

Speaking before the annual conference of the Society of Environmental Journalists (SEJ), Haaland said the Biden administration is “following the science and the law when it comes to everything we do, and that includes gas and oil″ leases considered by her agency, which oversees US public lands and waters.

Despite Biden’s pledge, “We’re not going to say we’re not going to use gas and oil. That’s not reality,″ Haaland said. “So we are doing the best we absolutely can.″

Haaland’s comments came after the administration faced sharp criticism from some of its strongest supporters —young climate activists — after the Interior approved the $8 billion Willow project on March 13.

The drilling by oil giant ConocoPhillips could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope.

Leaders of major environmental organizations and Indigenous groups had pleaded with Haaland, the first Native American Cabinet member, to use her authority to block the drilling project, which they say contradicts Biden’s agenda to cut planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030.

Environmental groups call Willow a “carbon bomb” and have mounted a social media #StopWillow campaign that has been seen hundreds of millions of times.

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