Court ruling lets ConocoPhillips dig in on the Willow oil project
By Dawnell Smith
An appellate court decision last week allows ConocoPhillips to continue bulldozing and erecting oil facilities for its huge Willow oil hub in the western Arctic. The people of Nuiqsut, located near the project and other oil operations, will endure continued rapid industrialization with significant physical and mental health impacts as ConocoPhillips upturns vital hunting and fishing grounds to make way for an oil field.
The small village of Nuiqsut. Photo by Paxson Woelber.
A divided 9th U.S. Court of Appeals ruling found that the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the project during the Biden administration complied with most laws. However, the majority opinion found that the agency needs to better explain why it authorized a smaller project plan than the one approved in 2020, but it doesn’t stop the project while it does so.
The agency had originally approved a larger project during the Trump administration. We took that decision to court and won in 2021. That ruling reaffirmed that the purposes of the public lands in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska include conservation and the protection of wildlife and natural resources as well as oil extraction.
This month’s appellate court ruling upholds the legal requirement that agencies explain their decisions, but it also undermines that earlier court decision by only requiring the bureau to better explain why it authorized a smaller project plan than the one approved in 2020. On the ground, the court’s ruling means the people, animals, water and land already suffering the consequences of two seasons of destructive construction face a future of industrial noise, destruction, disruption, and pollution.
The dissent sees us
The 22.8 million acre Western Arctic, includes important nesting habitat for migratory birds. BLM photo by Bob Wick.
The court ruling fails the people who rely on the western Arctic for food, their culture, and their way of life. The Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act made the protection of subsistence uses on federal lands a core purpose, but the latest court decision determined that the bureau met that obligation and others when permitting the project.
We disagree, and the court’s dissenting opinion aligns with our view: the bureau’s approval of the Willow project violates ANILCA and multiple other laws intended to protect people, animals, and public lands.
“This decision is bad news for the planet and anyone who cares about the impacts of industrialization on communities now and in the future,” said Bridget Psarianos, senior staff attorney with Trustees for Alaska, in a press release sent out after the ruling came out. “The bureau is required under the law to protect the western Arctic’s sensitive ecosystem and the subsistence users who rely on them. But the agency did not minimize the harm from this project on the Arctic’s people, animals, habitat, and the planet in a real way, in violation of the law.”
The Willow oil project is the largest new oil project underway on federal lands in the United States. It dramatically expands ConocoPhillips’ extensive oil operations in the Arctic.
The Reserve is an important area for the Western Arctic Caribou Herd. BLM photo by Bob Wick.
The project will churn out toxic pollution and greenhouse gases with devastating effects on the region and the climate, doing great harm to people and animals already facing diminished access to food, the incessant hardship of noise and pollution, and the ongoing and devasting impacts of a warming climate, including sea ice loss, permafrost thaw, erosion, extreme storms, fish die offs due to warm rivers, and much more.
Our work continues as we stand with clients today and in the weeks, months, and years ahead to protect the Arctic from this devastating project and the additional industrialization it drives.