This 2019 aerial photo provided by ConocoPhillips shows an exploratory drilling camp at the proposed site of the Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope. The Biden administration is weighing approval of a major oil project on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope that supporters say represents an economic lifeline for Indigenous communities in the region but environmentalists say is counter to Biden’s climate goals. A decision on ConocoPhillips Alaska’s Willow project, in a federal oil reserve roughly the size of Indiana, could come by early March 2023. (ConocoPhillips via AP)

This 2019 aerial photo provided by ConocoPhillips shows an exploratory drilling camp at the proposed site of the Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope. The Biden administration is weighing approval of a major oil project on Alaska’s petroleum-rich North Slope that supporters say represents an economic lifeline for Indigenous communities in the region but environmentalists say is counter to Biden’s climate goals. A decision on ConocoPhillips Alaska’s Willow project, in a federal oil reserve roughly the size of Indiana, could come by early March 2023. (ConocoPhillips via AP)

Opinion: It is time to draw the line on oil projects like Willow

We need support projects that build on renewable infrastructure.

  • By Michael Tobin
  • Wednesday, March 1, 2023 5:14pm
  • Opinion

“We are in the fight of our lives and we are losing. Greenhouse gas emissions keep growing, global temperatures keep rising, and our planet is fast approaching tipping points that will make climate chaos irreversible.” Antonio Guterres, United Nations Secretary General, Nov. 7, 2022.

I stared into the Grand Canyon the other day. No, not that one. I am speaking of the canyon between politics and physics displayed at the state Capitol in Juneau last Friday, Feb. 17. The occasion was a pair of hearings in the House and Senate Resource Committees on resolutions expressing support for the Willow project.

The Willow project, for those of you keeping score at home, is a huge new north slope oil and gas project proposed by ConocoPhillips on federal land in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. A decision by Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and President Biden, to go forward with the project or not, may occur in early March.

On the political side of the canyon, a sunny mood. Upbeat happiness! Thousands of jobs and billions of dollars, 30 years of prosperity for Alaska! Needed infrastructure projects for Inupiat villages! Just like Prudhoe Bay!

Talk about political ducks in a row. (Hats off to Rep. JosiahPatkotak of Utkiagvik who cosponsored and presented the resolutions.) Everybody on board: Senators Murkowski and Sullivan, Representative Peltola, the Alaska Legislature (who passed supporting resolutions for the Willow project last year unanimously), the Alaska Federation of Natives, all north slope Native Corporations and most villages and tribes, labor unions, the Chamber of Commerce.

I want the best for Indigenous Alaskans, so why was I sick to my stomach?

Because on the physics side of the canyon, where the connection between burning fossil fuels and global heating is acknowledged, the sky was grim. Typhoon Meerbok, the strongest Pacific storm in half a century had just done a number on coastal villages from Shaktoolik to Kivalina. Seventy-three Alaskan Indigenous villages were threatened with destruction by falling into the sea where ice cover had disappeared or into rivers whose permafrost banks were melting. The temperature of the world’s oceans continued to increase. Ocean heat waves (remember the blob?) continued to cause die-offs of forage fish and seabirds.

One hundred fifty years of digging up coal, oil, and gas and burning it for energy has already raised global temperatures by about 1.6 degrees F over pre-industrial levels, enough to melt permafrost and glaciers, and to begin to melt the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, raise the sea level, threaten island nations like Tuvalu and the Maldives, and coastal cities like New Orleans, New York and Los Angeles.

The world is awash in oil and gas reserves that cannot be burned if we are to have a stable climate. Two years ago the head of the International Energy Agency stated “If governments are serious about the climate crisis there can be no new investments in oil, gas, and coal from now on, starting this year.” (May, 2021)

But back to the happy-oil-field-development side of the Canyon! In that eerie space proponents can claim fifty years of safe production of oil and gas on the slope and not mention the Exxon Valdez spill and its wipeout of the working economy of Prince William Sound. In this fairy tale land there are no disappearing salmon runs on the Yukon and Kuskokwim Rivers or disappearing crab fisheries.

ConocoPhillips made $82 billion in profits in 2022. The oil companies’ claim that production in Alaska is more responsible than production elsewhere would be more believable if the company would team with the other north slope producers and commit to fully funding the 73 native villages threatened by climate change in their sovereign, complicated decisions and plans to either repair and strengthen their villages or move them. They could also agree to fund the Cities of Utkiagvik, Wainwright and Atqasuk during the transition to a renewable economy.

It is time to draw the line on oil projects like Willow. We need support by state, federal and private entities for projects that build on renewable infrastructure. Willow is just a huge fossil fuel project, part of the past, part of the problem, not part of the solution.

For information about stopping Willow visit the website of the Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic (www.silainuat.org) See their suggestions for emails to President Biden and Interior Secretary Haaland.

• Michael Tobin is a board member of 350 Juneau-Climate Action for Alaska. Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.

More in Opinion

Web
Have something to say?

Here’s how to add your voice to the conversation.

Deena Bishop, commissioner of the Department of Education and Early Development, discusses the status of school districts’ finances during a press conference with Gov. Mike Dunleavy at the Alaska State Capitol on Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire)
Opinion: The fight to improve public education has just begun

We owe our children more than what the system is currently offering

The author and her husband carry an American flag during the Fourth of July parade, Friday, July 4, 2025, in Juneau, Alaska. (Photo courtesy Kate Troll)
My Turn: Claiming the flag on the Fourth of July

Now, here cheering the flag were other immigrants with an uncertain future. What were they cheering about?

Doug Mills/The New York Times file photo 
President Donald Trump and President Vladimir Putin of Russia at a joint news conference in Helsinki, Finland, July 16, 2018.
Opinion: Mistaking flattery for respect

Last Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu nominated President Donald Trump for… Continue reading

Win Gruening (courtesy)
My Turn: The millions add up. CBJ, get a grip on spending.

Ignoring essential basic services while spending money on projects and services that few want or need doesn’t make Juneau more affordable

(Juneau Empire file photo)
My Turn: Murkowski bought time for a new governor to do better

The senator said she added a provision that delays new federal penalties on Alaska for its high error rate in processing SNAP benefits.

Alexander B. Dolitsky
My Turn: When a writer’s courage against antisemitism shook a nation

Courage is doing what is necessary even when it’s difficult or scary.

Juneau Empire file photo
My Turn: At least you feel bad about the bill

Sen. Murkowski, you cannot say you voted with Alaskans in mind.

Cynthia Fancyboy (Courtesy photo)
My Turn: Cutting Medicaid hurts Alaska’s small villages and our children

Without Medicaid, I couldn’t afford the doctor visits, surgeries, medications, and hospital stays that have kept me healthy and working for Alaska’s kids over the years.

From left, Senators Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) head to the Senate chamber at the Capitol in Washington on Tuesday morning, July 1, 2025. Senate Republicans were racing on Tuesday morning to lock down the votes to pass their sweeping tax and domestic police bill, after an all-night session of voting and negotiating with holdouts left Trump’s agenda hanging in the balance. (Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times)
My Turn: Murkowski’s moment of shame

She has no excuse for not following the model Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., set when he killed Joe Biden’s biggest initiative in 2021.

Gov. Mike Dunleavy speaks about his decision to veto House Bill 57 during a press conference at the Alaska State Capitol on Monday, May 19, 2025. (Jasz Garrett / Juneau Empire file photo)
Opinion: Governor deposits a veto to help predatory lenders

Thousands of Alaskans get so squeezed on their finances every year that… Continue reading

Deven Mitchell is the executive director and chief executive officer of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp. (Photo courtesy of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corp.)
Opinion: The key to a stronger fund: Diversification

Diversification is a means of stabilizing returns and mitigating risk