President Biden recently signed a new, and very controversial, project into place. Most people know of this project as the Willow Project and it was given formal approval on March 13, 2023.
The Willow Project is a massive and decades-long oil drilling venture on Alaska’s North Slope in the National Petroleum Reserve, which is owned by the federal government.
The goal of this project is to produce hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil weekly in order to decrease American dependence on foreign energy supplies. While this may solve some problems, most people argue that it is detrimental and have tried fighting it off, according to change.org.
A petition on change.org to aid in stopping this project received over 2.5 million signatures with that number only rising. The same petition got thousands of comments and has surpassed many of its signature goals.
“It is going to damage the environment and possibly cause more climate change,” sophomore Claire Hauzie said. Climate change is something that humans have been battling for multiple generations and has only gotten worse over time.
Climate change became a prominent problem around the 19th century when Earth’s temperatures started to increase steadily, according to Newsweek.com. Climate change is the long-term act of Earth’s temperatures rising and there are multiple effects that help cause it.
One of the biggest causes of climate change is an abundant amount of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere. Willow, if completed, would release an additional 9.2 million metric tons of carbon pollution into the atmosphere each year according to the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Oil is the most widely used fossil fuel in the world and the Willow Project was approved in hopes of harvesting an abundant amount. While having a lot of oil can be good, it can also cause so much harm.
“Environmentally there’s usually not very much good that comes out of something like this because at some point there is going to be an oil spill. Oil spills cost a wild amount of money and they also have really bad long-lasting effects on environmental ecosystems,” Library Media Specialist Austin Nunn said.
While producing so much oil daily, it is almost inevitable that some sort of spill will happen. With this project taking place in Alaska, a spill of any size could be a serious threat.
Hundreds of thousands of animals die each year due to oil spills and thousands of others are injured or homeless, according to science.org.
“Spilling oil on land may not seem to be as big of a deal as it is over the ocean, but groundwater sources will be detrimentally impacted by a spill. Groundwater is a major source of drinking water for many people in the United States and Canada.” Ap Environmental Science Teacher Jessica Timmons said.
Without fresh and clean water, it is impossible for people and plants to thrive. The Willow Project could potentially endanger and kill multiple species if, or when, an oil spill happens.
“While this project will lessen dependence on foreign oil, it still just prolongs the transition away from fossil fuels and non-renewable resources to more sustainable sources of energy. This project will also take time – an immense amount of time – we are talking 10 years before they can even begin extracting and refining the oil,” Timmons said.
Something that not many people think about is that during the 10 years it will take to build and start up this project, the construction itself will cause destruction and kickstart the environmental effects that are to come.
Although this project has a long list of negative outcomes, there could potentially be some good that could strike. One of these things is the number of jobs that this project can provide.
“I tend to be more in favor of fewer pipelines, but I do understand and can see why the argument stands of why we need pipelines especially for our infrastructure that relies on fossil fuels and also the money and job aspect when it comes to those things,” Nunn said.
It is estimated that the Willow Project will create 2500 construction jobs and 300 permanent jobs allowing for lots of people to become employed who may have not been given an opportunity like this one before, according to ohsmagnet.com.
While it is hard to tell just what could arise from this project now, biologists and environmental scientists are looking for ways to slow some of the project’s potential effects. The biggest way students can support is by signing at least one of the countless numbers of petitions and staying informed on how to help as this project progresses.
