Environmentalists‘ request to temporarily halt ConocoPhillips’ (COP.N) multibillion-dollar oil drilling project in Alaska’s Arctic was denied by a federal judge on Monday.
In two lawsuits filed last month, environmental organizations and a Native American tribe urged U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage to suspend work on the $7 billion Willow project amid worries it would worsen climate change and ruin pristine animal habitat.
Gleason ruled an injunction was unnecessary since ConocoPhillips’ road and gravel mine development this month wouldn’t hurt the groups.
The judge didn’t consider whether the cases would prevail later.
A ConocoPhillips representative said the decision would allow the business to build “soon” and create “significant possibilities” for the state, its Native American communities, and U.S. energy production.
One attorney appealing the approval, Bridget Psarianos, termed the building pace “aggressive” and the judge’s ruling “heartbreaking.”
“We will do all we can to defend the region while the merits of our case is heard,” Psarianos added.
The Interior Department remained silent.
On March 13, the Biden administration authorized the proposal, bringing praise from Alaskan politicians and the oil sector but anger from environmentalists who felt it undermined President Joseph Biden’s widely publicized climate change and renewable energy efforts.
ConocoPhillips can build three drill pads, 25.8 miles of gravel roads, an airstrip, and hundreds of miles of ice roads in northern Alaska. According to the business, the 30-year project would peak at 180,000 barrels of oil per day.
Environmental organizations and Native American tribes filed two lawsuits within days of the decision, claiming the government did not fully evaluate less destructive options and incorrectly thought it could not prohibit ConocoPhillips from producing oil and gas resources on leases it holds.
ConocoPhillips has owned National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska leases since 1999. In 2020, former President Donald Trump authorized the project. Gleason stopped it a year later, finding the environmental effect research defective.
Sovereign Inupiat for Living Arctic and Center for Biological Diversity v. BLM, U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska, Nos. 3:23-cv-00058 and 3:23-cv-00061.
For environmental groups: Carole Holley, Eric Jorgensen, Erik Grafe, Ian Dooley, and Jeremy Lieb of Earthjustice; Bridget Psarianos, Brook Brisson, and Suzanne Bostrom of Trustees for Alaska; and Kristen Monsell of the Center for Biological Diversity.
ConocoPhillips: Stoel Rives’ Jason Morgan, Ryan Steen, and Whitney Brown.
Interior Department: Paul Turcke and Rickey Turner, U.S. Department of Justice.
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