Liar Liar Pants on Fire: Biden's Willow Project

“No more drilling on federal lands. Period.” 

Those were President Biden’s exact words before the election in 2020. This month, America’s first “climate hero” approved the most environmentally detrimental oil project the United States has seen in decades.

The news is especially disappointing considering the Climate Report 2023, recently published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Over the past eight years, scientists worldwide worked on an assessment for policymakers, including statistics and research concerning climate change and its calculated effects on the planet. The results are alarming. The report highlights that it seems highly unlikely that global warming will be kept below the critical 2 degrees Fahrenheit if emissions keep rising at the current rate, leading to irreversible damages, and putting millions of humans at risk in the near future. While the report highlighted extremely worrying statistics, it also underlined that stopping the worst-case scenarios, which will make the planet quite unlivable for a large population of the earth, is still possible if politicians take immediate action. And what does Joe Biden, probably the most senile president the United States has ever had, do about this? He takes the report, throws it in the bin and implements the Willow Project. 

What is Willow?

The Willow Project is a multi-billion-dollar project to drill gas and oil on native lands in Alaska. Over 30 years, this project will produce 629 million barrels of oil (95 billion Liters) and 287 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. For comparison, this equals the emissions of two million cars in the same timeframe or 76 new coal-fired power plants operating in one year. It will be carried out by the corporate group Conoco Phillips. It is said to help create jobs, fight rising gas prices during soaring inflation and lead to American independence from Russia and Saudi Arabia. 

What are the Environmental consequences?

The environmental impact of this one project is of an unimaginable scale. Scientists worldwide stress that Willow will irreversibly damage the planet and lead the climate crisis to the point of no return. Global warming will become unstoppable, ecosystems will disappear entirely, and species will become extinct at an uncontrollable speed. Building the infrastructure required for the project will harm the already highly fragile Alaskan ecosystem even before Conoco Phillips starts to drill. Moreover, the project’s carbon emissions will seriously threaten the local population’s respiratory, cardiovascular and kidney health. For example, the construction of oil wells currently being carried out in the Alaskan village of Nuiqsuit has already led to a 20% increase in respiratory diseases since the project’s beginning, putting numerous children whose schools are located right next to those wells at extreme risk for chronic illnesses, bone deformations and even cognitive malfunctions.

But Willow is not only an environmental disaster. Alaska is home to countless native villages where indigenous communities whose traditional way of living will be severely disrupted by Willow’s impact on wildlife and nature reserves. Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, mayor of Nuiqsuit, states: “As oil is exported and sent around the globe, our communities in the Arctic are left to contend with the health impacts of pollution as well as the devastation that comes from dramatic changes to the land like sea ice melt, permafrost thaw, and coastal erosion.” Native communities are expected to suffer from sick fish, toxic air, disappearing grazing areas and much more. More than 70 percent of indigenous households are expected to lose at least 20 dollars due to food purchases due to this decline in substitute resources. It is unsettling that the indigenous quote, “When the last tree is cut down, the last fish eaten and the last stream poisoned, you will realize that you cannot eat money,” is now as relevant as ever. It is infuriating that the indigenous communities themselves first suffer this dystopian reality. 

If you ever feel like having a good laugh – or cry – I invite you to filter your search engine to show only results that have been published before 2020 and go on joebiden.com/climate-plan to read all about how sad he was that vulnerable communities are disproportionately impacted by the climate emergency and pollution and how you can trust him to become the world’s next big visionary in combating climate change. However, I take no responsibility should you impulsively throw your laptop against the wall.   

But what about profits?

Of course, this is all worth it, right? It will boost the economy, fight inflation, and create jobs which is formidable because we love money, right? Okay, let’s talk money. Aside from the fact that Willow is only expected to start showing profits after 2035 and will thus not help with current inflation, experts state that the oil reserves will not suffice to make the United States independent from Russian oil. Also notable is that the oil found in Alaskan reserves differs significantly from Russian or Venezuelan oil and will need to be blended with Russian oil to enter domestic refineries, revealing that the United States cannot gain independence from oil simply by producing more oil. When you are already the highest oil-producing country in the world, and it is still insufficient to meet your needs, maybe it is time to look inside and reevaluate your needs and priorities.

Willow is not a desperate measure to soften the economic cost of current crises as Biden makes it out to be, but a simple profit project that might not positively impact the American economy. This is partly because Conco Phillips can use a loophole in Alaska’s tax law to write off its expenses for this project against the taxes the company pays on its other oil developments in the state. So, while the average American struggles to pay their electricity bills and taxes in light of soaring inflation, oil and energy corporations like Conco Phillips barely give back a cent to the state. Infuriated yet? 

Conco Phillip has made record profits in the past few years, which have not benefited the American population, and those profits are diverted into wealthy private shareholders and executives. The corporation has made a higher profit in the last year alone than the local and state governments are estimated to gain from taxes on 30 years of drilling at Willow. Not even the Alaskan cities suffering the immediate effects of Willow will make large profits. Nuiqsut has received only $600,000 from drilling in the Western Arctic over the past ten years, equivalent to what Conoco Phillips earns in Alaska in a little more than two hours. It is estimated that the project will lead to 3.9 billion dollars in alleged new federal revenue. This number is a joke compared to the approximately 19.8 billion dollars Willow is expected to cost the United States climate-related damages. But it will create countless jobs for Alaskans, right? Currently, only one percent of employed Alaska North Slope residents work in the oil industry, and it is estimated that most of the new jobs will be filled by people from outside Alaska. Also, more and more studies show that young people do not want to work in the oil sector but would instead pursue a job in the sustainable energy sector. 

Another reason why the profits of Willow are not as great as they seem is that most of the oil extractions are intended for internal use, especially in California, Oregon, and Washington, three states where the oil demand has been plummeting where demand for green energy has been skyrocketing. According to the Federal Bureau of Land Management’s investigation, it is estimated that by 2030 the majority of cars there will be driven with renewable energy and that the need for such extreme extractions will not be as high as anticipated. Furthermore, several economists in this Federal Bureau expect global oil prices to sink by only 20 cents per barrel due to Willow, and only if it operates at peak capacity. Other economists say it is hard to determine whether Willow will influence oil and gas prices.

In short: Willow represents a sad political failure to take the opportunity to move away from Russian oil by investing in green energy and not disastrous oil projects.

Millions of young Americans ask themselves: how dare this hypocrite co-opt the climate narrative for his political gains and throw away his promises the next second? How dare he tell us climate action is too costly when billions are available for disastrous oil projects? How dare he look desperate children who will feel the effects of Willow long after his death in the eyes and lie to their faces? The only thing worse than boomer politicians blatantly ignoring the populations’ eager calls for immediate climate action are boomer politicians who use the youth’s anxieties and spit on them. Thus, what is worse than apathy? What is worse than politicians who openly do not care about the climate crisis? Lies. Lies are worse.