US President Joe Biden has approved a major oil and gas drilling project in Alaska that faced strong opposition from environmental activists.
The company behind the Willow project, ConocoPhillips, says it will create local investment and thousands of jobs.
But the $8bn (£6.6bn) proposal faced a torrent of online activism in recent weeks, particularly among youth activists on TikTok.
Opponents argue it should be halted over its climate and wildlife impacts.
Located on Alaska’s remote North Slope, it is the largest oil project in the region for decades.
It is slated to produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil a day.
According to US Bureau of Land Management estimates, that means it will generate up to 278 million metric tonnes of CO2e over its 30-year lifetime – the equivalent of adding two million cars to US roads every year.
CO2e is a unit used to express the climate impact of all greenhouse gases together, as if they were all emitted as carbon dioxide.
Environmental activists have argued the project’s approval is inconsistent with President Biden’s pledges to lead on climate action.
More than one million letters of protest have been written to the White House, and a Change.org petition calling for Willow to be halted drew more than three million signatures.
But all three lawmakers who represent Alaska in Congress, including one Democrat, pushed for the project’s approval, touting it as a much-needed investment in the region’s communities.
They also argued it would help boost domestic energy production and lessen the country’s reliance on foreign oil.
Source: BBC
