March 11, 2023

" In one of its most consequential climate decisions, the Biden administration is planning to greenlight an enormous $8 billion oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska...."

The NYT reports.
Willow would be the largest new oil development in the United States, expected to pump out 600 million barrels of crude over 30 years.... Environmental activists, who have labeled the project a “carbon bomb” have argued that the project would deepen America’s dependence on oil and gas....

Willow was initially approved by the Trump administration and the Biden administration later defended the approval in court. The project was then temporarily blocked by a judge who said that the prior administration’s environmental analysis was not sufficient....

62 comments:

Readering said...

My view is that all recoverable oil will come out of the ground at some point. Hopefully later oil gets extracted with less environmental consequence. And hopefully by the time Venezuelan production dominates based on reserves it will be friendly again.

paminwi said...

It’s election season!

Old and slow said...

Signs of sanity? Weird, but I won't complain.

Wince said...

“How dhaaare you?!”

Wince said...

“How dhaaare you?!”

Achilles said...

The Climate Change Agenda is just a front for the WEF Fascists to take control over fossil fuels.

This essentially gives them control over everyone's prosperity and wealth.

This sort of thing works on gullible people like Ann who naturally side with the rulers over those terrible little people. That makes her better than them. Especially the MAGA types.

They should just turn their thermostats down right? Shut up and do what your told.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

One of the best Biden things I have heard. People have no idea of distances in Alaska, and how far even a catastrophic incident would be from affecting even many mammals or accessible ocean life, never mind humans. Get on a f-ing plane and fly to it and see how long it takes to see any movement on the ground; or try something similar with ships and fishing. It is not very different from having an environmental crisis on Mars in terms of the effect even in Nome for Pete's sake.

The problem is that people with literary, historical, and arts training (and I am absolutely one of those) have really good imaginations and can make all these imagined scenarios 500 years in the future or 10,000 miles away in Yakutsk as if they are as close as other imaginably distant places like New Brunswick in 20 years.

Rule of thumb*: Whenever you see a story or narrative being presented to you about environmental concerns, you are being lied to. "Open me first" as the camera commercial used to say.

*Which has nothing to do with husbands taking a switch to their wives, ever, anywhere, in any law code.

Mason G said...

"Environmental activists, who have labeled the project a “carbon bomb” have argued that the project would deepen America’s dependence on oil and gas...."

Environmental activists are welcome to stop using oil and gas (and products made of or with them) anytime they like. Nobody is getting in their way.

Wait- what? They want to force other people to not use oil and gas, too? Perhaps they should mind their own fucking business. That's my argument.

re Pete said...

The Commander-in-Chief answers him while chasing a fly

Saying, “Death to all those who would whimper and cry”

And dropping a barbell he points to the sky

Saying, “The sun’s not yellow it’s chicken”

Bob Boyd said...

10% for the Big Guy

Lincolntf said...

Energy policy is now called "climate change" policy. What a clown world the NYT lives in.

traditionalguy said...

The great Alaskan Pipeline was a 1960s project. And back then the Racists really did run everything. One more reason it should be dismantled. Or at least re-named for MLK who got himself shot down in 1968. But forget demonstrations. BLM can’t stand Alaska’s cold weather.

traditionalguy said...

The great Alaskan Pipeline was a 1960s project. And back then the Racists really did run everything. One more reason it should be dismantled. Or at least re-named for MLK who got himself shot down in 1968. But forget demonstrations. BLM can’t stand Alaska’s cold weather.

Amadeus 48 said...

"Willow was initially approved by the Trump administration and the Biden administration later defended the approval in court."

I'd like to know more about that.

Smilin' Joe can be whatever he needs to be today. It is the beauty of being totally empty.

RNB said...

Clinton Administration: "Drag a hundred-dollar bill through a trailer park, you never know what you'll find."

Biden Administration: "Drag a few million dollars through the Oval Office, you never know what you can do."

who-knew said...

It's just like the Times to misreport the event. It's not a "consequential climate decision". If anything it's a decision to enhance U.S. energy security and help keep citizen's from freezing in the dark. A very rare smart decision by the Biden administration.

Jersey Fled said...

Time for Democrats to start running as Republicans again.

R C Belaire said...

Battlespace prep for reelection. He'll please more voters compared to upset greenness

Michael K said...

Whoops. Biden seems to have returned to sanity. Freezing in the dark is less attractive.

Abdul Abulbul Amir said...


The old "not sufficient" red tape. Drag things out for years.

gilbar said...

i'll Believe this, WHEN it happens..
My guess is still: He'll approve it, but only 1 pad; then he can blame the company for not drilling

Creola Soul said...

This is good for the Alaska Natives. They strongly support this project. To deny this would be one of the most egregious and racist actions ever. Native Americans, particularly in the Four Corners region, are likewise being denied an opportunity to develop their resources. It denies them the opportunity for good jobs, better healthcare, housing and schools.
The “climate impact”, if there is any, of these projects are minuscule when you consider what China and India are doing. Denying these projects is but more environmental arrogance and virtue signaling.

n.n said...

Environmentalist in the modern model are noteworthy as lobbyists/bloggers/influencers to sustain a consensus with special and peculiar interests (e.g. CFL, CO2, acid rain, ozone "hole", nuclear power, population bomb). So, spread the Green blight, intermittent/unreliable energy, and renewable profits.

Dave Begley said...

It will never happen.

n.n said...

The old "not sufficient" red tape. Drag things out for years.

And increase capital costs. Capital depletion is a favored means of effecting regulation through strangulation. Share responsibility (e.g. progressive prices), too.

Dave Begley said...

Top rated NYT comment.

“ The U.S. consumes about 20 million barrels of oil each day. At that rate, this project represents just one month's worth of American oil consumption. Worth the risk to the North Slope? Nope.”

Sounds like the Stanford DEI Dean.

rehajm said...

The administration estimates the emissions linked to the oil would total about 9.2 million metric tons of carbon pollution a year— equal to adding nearly two million cars to the roads each year

That’s just stupid. Emissions are a function of consumption, not from sourcing oil from the US vs Russia or the Mid East.

Stupid.

n.n said...

Biden seems to have returned to sanity.

After denying a pipeline, increasing rail traffic, and returning from Kiev with a consensus and cover-up of his trail.

cfs said...

Election campaigning for 2024 will soon start in earnest. Time for Biden to pretend to pivot to the middle in order to get those campaign advertisements ready for prime-time. I suspect there is an agreement somewhere between the administration and an environmental group for a "sue and settle" case to stop the project from actually proceeding.

Limited blogger said...

want to see the money trail on this one

Drago said...

Amadeus 48: ""Willow was initially approved by the Trump administration and the Biden administration later defended the approval in court."

I'd like to know more about that."

What's there to understand?

A lefty judge shut Trump's executive effort down due to Trump being the President. That's all that was needed for any number of judges from 2017 to Jan of 2021 to overrule Trump admin efforts. Including John Roberts. You might say, especially John Roberts.

Obama was allowed to violate the procedures act to enact an unconstitutional "law" and the very same judges ruled Trump, as president, was absolutely not allowed to rescind the unconstitutional law using the same process.

The Biden admin defended the drilling approval in court strictly as a means to protect executive branch perogative/authority knowing that they can have whatever they want and that judges will always stop any "unapproved" president from doing the same thing.

Better yet, since we all know Biden and his LLR-democratical allies intend to "end fossil fuels", Biden and crew have already implemented rules changes that it will make the drilling much less economic and administratively difficult for the drillers so that in time, say right around late Nov of 2024 (just a wild guess there, wink wink), the drilling can be stopped for any number of administrative reasons.....so yes, this is a head-fake by the lefties/dems/LLR-democraticals.

rehajm said...

Last month the Biden Administration to abandoned RCP 8.5 which has been long abandoned by climate scientists. Yet journalists and activists (but I repeat myself) still use it for Hollywood-Armageddon climate scare headlines…

It also allows the Biden Administration to drill like Hell…

Robert Cook said...

"Time for Democrats to start running as Republicans again."

Especially as they've been governing as (moderate) Republicans.

Tim said...

Didn't Biden his "press" secretary just tell us the they had lowered our gas and utility bills? Also, the border is secure.

Mr Wibble said...

The project was then temporarily blocked by a judge who said that the prior administration’s environmental analysis was not sufficient....

The law needs to be changed. I'd say give Congress the final approval over all these projects, and eliminate this kind of crap.

madAsHell said...

$8 billion??

How much money did we send to Ukraine?? Over $100 billion

This is noise for the newspaper. There must be some looming energy crisis they needs to be managed with headlines.

Jupiter said...

"Environmental activists, who have labeled the project a “carbon bomb” have argued that the project would deepen America’s dependence on oil and gas ...".

I would suggest that the real problem is that we have been feeding the environmental activists. This has only deepened their insatiable dependence on food. We need to help them to become food-independent. They need to reach a sustainable nutritional state.

Jupiter said...

"My view is that all recoverable oil will come out of the ground at some point. Hopefully later oil gets extracted with less environmental consequence. And hopefully by the time Venezuelan production dominates based on reserves it will be friendly again."

My God, readering has said something sensible. An entire sentence wholly compatible with logic, reason and reality. Of course, it was followed immediately by its complete negation.

Kate said...

Like it or not, this is how Murkowski gets reelected. She plays both sides and moves these projects along. For a while Trump had her locked in over this. Also, the extensive Native support shields Biden from too much heat.

The NYT commenter who declared the amount of oil in the North Slope would equal a pittance in consumption must be a youngster. This argument has been around a long time and it's always been ridiculously myopic.

Gerda Sprinchorn said...

In one of its most consequential climate decisions, the Biden administration is planning to greenlight an enormous $8 billion oil drilling project ... expected to pump out 600 million barrels of crude over 30 years

Let's do a little simple math.

600 million barrels of crude over 30 years is about 54,000 barrels per day. Total world production of crude oil is about 80,000,000 barrels per day right now.

So this "enormous," and "most consequential climate decision" will amount to about 0.07 % of total world production.

Wow.

JAORE said...

Joe blesses it so he can show he really cares about energy costs/independence. Oil companies will spend millions upon millions into the area. Biden*, if in office post 2024, can halt further drilling or pipelines.

Lose/lose.

* Or the head D folk.

Original Mike said...

Blogger cfs said..."Election campaigning for 2024 will soon start in earnest. Time for Biden to pretend to pivot to the middle in order to get those campaign advertisements ready for prime-time. I suspect there is an agreement somewhere between the administration and an environmental group for a "sue and settle" case to stop the project from actually proceeding." (emphasis added)

Bingo!

Aggie said...

I hate to tell you folks, but if the recoverable reserves are only 600 million barrels, then it's not a very big discovery, certainly no 'giant' and it certainly won't be any kind of company-maker. This is bread & butter type work, reserves replacement. Calling it a 'carbon bomb' is deeply misleading, bordering on rhetorical 'misinformation'.

narciso said...

judge contreras of the flynn case, blocked the permit,

Michael K said...

obert Cook said...

"Time for Democrats to start running as Republicans again."

Especially as they've been governing as (moderate) Republicans.


Leave it to Cook to declare that the insane Democrat policies we live under right now are "moderate Republican." In the case of a few Romney types, he might have a point.

Joe Smith said...

"Environmental activists, who have labeled the project a “carbon bomb” have argued that the project would deepen America’s dependence on oil and gas ...".

The world was supposed to end 30 years ago, then 20, and then 10.

I feel like I'm playing with house money, so what the hell...

Paul said...

I'll believe it when I see it. But, with Hunter being looked at so hard in the House, I bet Biden is trying to do anything to save himself and his scum son.

Andrew said...

Yay, Biden! In his lucid moments even he sees thru the shit.

Yancey Ward said...

Biden feeling the pressue to refill the SPR he drained the last 18 months.

Yancey Ward said...

Since it is the correct decision to allow it to go forwardd, I am assuming Biden will end up cancelling the project at some point. His staff is too dumb to do something right.

Josephbleau said...

It seems Beiden has torpedoed two pipelines, the Keystone XL and the Nord Stream set. Canceling the Keystone was to enthuse his envirobase. Canceling the second was to enthuse his war profiteer base.

But he can't keep his hands off it, he now wants to approve Alaska Oil to help his re-election, but who will cover the bribes he is loosing on the other side?

BIII Zhang said...

Democrats should also know that Willow is the name of Sarah Palin's daughter.

Same as this huge oil field next to the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge that Biden just approved.

(Insert simpsonshahakid.jpg)

Lurker21 said...

2023 will be Biden co-opting Trump's issues.

2025 will be Biden (or whoever) back to the usual nonsense.

gadfly said...

Alaska crude is a medium-grade oil darker and slightly heavier than the light sweet crude from the lower 48 oilfields. Only our West Coast has the right kind of refineries and demand for this type of oil.

But the huge trans-Alaska pipeline is largely in place so opening up Willow for fracking will likely become the latest petrochemical project to save the US economy. China would take it but they are now soaking up all the cheap Russian oil they can get.

gadfly said...

BIII Zhang said...
Democrats should also know that Willow is the name of Sarah Palin's daughter.

Same as this huge oil field next to the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge that Biden just approved.


Never mind that Willow is also the name of a tree. And the Willow Project is actually located in the National Petroleum Reserve which is Federal land.

boatbuilder said...

"The administration estimates the emissions linked to the oil would total about 9.2 million metric tons of carbon pollution a year— equal to adding nearly two million cars to the roads each year"

The word "linked" in any news article is an infallible signal that bullshit is to follow.

Kevin Bacon has been "linked" to...pretty much everything, ever. You want to denigrate someone or something by innuendo or with faint evidence--"linked" will do it.

Rusty said...

This is a drop in a bucket compare to everything this administration shut down.
Everything in the world runs on petroleum.

n.n said...

carbon pollution

Therein lies the scientific fallacy and the erroneous onus for change. Still, the veil is lifted, no longer is CO2 the witch, the warlock, the baby crying for a wicked solution, NOW it is carbon, the organic, the green Earth, the plants, the animals, the population "burden".

n.n said...

This is a drop in a bucket compare to everything this administration shut down.

Consequently increasing rail traffic.

Everything in the world runs on petroleum.

And derivatives, including sustaining Green energy through overcast conditions, dark nights, frosted planes, and winds that are not viable.

n.n said...

This is a drop in a bucket compare to everything this administration shut down.

Economic production and distribution, social development, medical services, educating "our [unPlanned] Posterity", peace after Spring, etc.

DanTheMan said...

Why now?
Heating oil prices are down, way below than when Biden inherited Trump's inflation.
Gasoline is cheaper than it's been in decades.
Inflation is low, much better than under the last guy.
America is much more energy secure now that we can depend on our infinitely stable allies in the Mideast.

I wonder why Joe would do something so foolish in light of all this fabulous news?



walter said...

https://www.independentsentinel.com/biden-indefinitely-blocks-16-million-acres-from-fossil-fuel-drilling/

And meanwhile, "inflation reduction act" spends $$$ to incentivize destruction of coal plants.