The US Government approves a controversial oil exploitation project in a nature reserve in Alaska

Aerial image of a ConocoPhillips prospecting base on the Alaska reservation in 2019.AP

Jug of cold water for the fight against climate change in the world's largest economy.

The Government of Washington has approved this Monday an important oil project in the north of Alaska of the American company ConocoPhillips, the Department of the Interior has announced, on which the management of federal lands in the country depends.

The measure is a setback for environmental groups, which in recent months have encouraged a massive campaign against the operation to prevent contamination of one of the last virgin areas of the US.

The so-called

, which is reduced to three drilling areas of the five initially requested by the company, will occupy an area known as the National Petroleum Reserve, on state land located in northwest Alaska, containing some 600 million barrels of crude oil. .

President Joe Biden, who came to the White House promising that he would not allow new oil and gas drilling on federal land, has backed down, even though he has announced additional environmental protection over a vast area of ​​the booking.

In addition, the White House has announced that it will permanently prohibit prospecting and drilling in a large area of ​​the Arctic Ocean that borders the reserve.

The defenders of the

see in the initiative a great source of employment, as well as an important contribution to the energy independence of the country, a strategic asset that has gained importance due to the war in Ukraine and the energy crisis derived from the Russian invasion.

But environmental groups argue that oil production in the area will seriously set back the fight against climate change.

"Willow is going to be one of the largest oil and gas developments on public federal lands in the US," the Sierra Club organization said Monday.

In a statement published on its website, it details: “[The

] will allow the drilling of more than 200 new wells and will produce some 278 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions over a period of 30 years.

This is the largest oil and gas exploitation project proposed in federal territory.

Environmental groups have called it a

and they argue that it would undo much of the progress the Administration has made in meeting its climate goals.”

The Biden Administration returned to the Paris Agreement after Republican Donald Trump withdrew from it.

The repeated release of millions of barrels from strategic oil reserves to curb the rise in fuel prices, which contributed so much to fuel inflation in 2022, has been one of the measures of the Democratic Administration, caught between its climate agenda and its fight against inflation.

President Biden, who is committed to the green economy in several of his star laws, such as the Inflation Reduction Act, had been forced to back down in the past, such as last April, when his Administration rented public land again to encourage the oil production and tackling inflation, at the highest level since the 1980s.

But Alaska's wilderness, one of the last pristine parts of the country, is a red line for environmental organizations.

Map of the Alaska National Reserve, with the areas of protection and oil exploitation.Associated Press

The mobilization against the

It has gained a foothold in public attention in recent weeks thanks to social networks, especially the TikTok micro-video platform, while an online signature collection campaign has added more than 3.2 million signatures.

The White House has also received more than a million letters against the initiative.

Because the battle around the project has been going on for years.

Initially approved by the Donald Trump Administration, a judge temporarily suspended ConocoPhillips' plans in 2021, subjecting them to a new evaluation by the federal government, which in June of that year established a moratorium.

A month ago, the Territory Management Office published its environmental analysis of the project, reducing the exploitation zones to three, instead of the five planned by the company,

with an approximate number of 219 wells.

This alternative project of the Democratic Administration will suppose the production of 576 million barrels of oil in 30 years, according to the estimations of the office.

Also the emission of 9.2 million tons of CO2 per year, that is, 0.1% of greenhouse gas emissions in the US in 2019.

In April 2021, recently arrived at the White House, Biden promised to reduce greenhouse gas emissions between 50% and 52% in 2030 compared to 2005 levels. The objective, which is part of the Agreement of Paris, pushes the world's leading economy to achieve emissions neutrality by 2050. The president's climate agenda suffered a setback last June, with a Supreme Court ruling limiting the power of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA, for its acronym in English) to impose limits on emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming.

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