Environmentalists Challenge Biden’s Approval of Massive Alaskan Oil Drilling Project

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 20 March 2023

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Biden approved on Monday ConocoPhillips’ controversial Willow project in Alaska, one of the largest oil developments ever proposed on federal land. The White House says it lacked legal latitude to cancel the project and simultaneously proposed rules that would limit other oil and gas leases in the region. But indigenous groups and climate activists say the project’s environmental and public health toll will be immense and irreversible and have sued to stop it. We’ll talk about the controversy and where the Biden administration’s environmental and energy goals stand. Guests: Tim Puko, climate correspondent covering politics and policy, The Washington Post Jennifer Layke, global director of energy, World Resources Institute John Leshy, professor of law, UC College of the Law, San Francisco; Interior Department’s solicitor under President Bill Clinton Yessenia Funes, climate director, Atmos - a climate and culture magazine Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:43.8	From KQED.
0:48.9	I'm...
0:49.3	...were...
0:50.3	...were...
0:52.3	...were...
0:53.3	...and... ...and... From KQED in San Francisco, this is Forum. I'm Mina Kim. California environmental groups have joined others in suing the Biden administration to stop the controversial Willow Oil Drilling
1:11.4	Project. It would extract some 600 million barrels of oil from Alaska's pristine federal
1:16.3	lands and leave a massive carbon footprint, just as a UN report today finds the world is
1:21.6	less likely to meet an ambitious climate target and more likely to face the most catastrophic
1:26.4	climate change impacts.
	...

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