White House defends Biden over backlash on Willow Project: ‘Kept his word where he can’
Ryan King
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White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre defended the Biden administration’s approval of the ConocoPhillips Willow Project, a large-scale oil drilling project.
Environmentalist activists have bristled at President Joe Biden, arguing he broke a campaign pledge to not approve “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters,” but Jean-Pierre insisted Biden “kept his word where he can by law” and stressed that the company had preexisting leasing rights.
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“As the Interior Department said, some of the company’s leases are decades old, granted by prior administrations. The company has a legal right to those leases. The department’s options are limited when there are legal contracts in place,” Jean-Pierre said during a White House briefing.
Earlier this week, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management revealed it allowed three out of the five drilling sites that had been sought for the Willow Project, which is set to take place on a federal oil reserve close to the size of Indiana.
A chorus of progressives, such as Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), slammed the Biden administration for allowing the project to move forward, citing his past remarks about new oil projects on federal lands. Back in the 2020 election cycle, Biden committed to not greenlighting “new oil and gas permitting on public lands and waters.”
“Number one, no more subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, no more drilling on federal lands, no more drilling, including offshore, no ability for the oil industry to continue to drill, period, ends, No. 1,” Biden said at the time.
Jean-Pierre cited a former Clinton administration official that said ConocoPhillips had “lease rights and that can’t be ignored.” She also argued that Biden has delivered big wins for environmental causes.
“The president is delivering the most aggressive climate agenda in U.S. history. And that is going to be his continued commitment to the American people,” she said.
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The project could unleash 9.2 million metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere, which is roughly equal to 2 million gas-powered cars, CNN reported. Initially, the project aimed to produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day and 500 million barrels over its lifetime on the five pads requested.
Biden’s move on the Willow Project was seen as a lurch to the center ahead of the midterm elections and was welcomed by moderates within his party, such as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV).