Environmental groups sue to halt Alaska oil drilling project

Operation 'presents a real threat to the wildlife, ecosystems and communities of Arctic Alaska', Sierra Club says

An exploratory drilling camp at the proposed site of the Willow Project on Alaska's North Slope. AP

US environmental groups have filed a lawsuit seeking to halt an oil drilling project in Alaska, which was approved this week by President Joe Biden's administration.

The Interior Department approved on Monday a proposal from US energy company ConocoPhillips to drill for oil at three sites in the federally owned National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska's pristine western Arctic.

Environmental groups had urged Mr Biden, who vowed during the 2020 White House race not to approve any new oil and gas leases on public lands, to reject the so-called Willow Project.

The six groups that filed the suit in US District Court on Tuesday accused the Interior Department and other agencies of violating the National Environmental Policy Act, the Endangered Species Act and other laws by authorising the project.

“ConocoPhillips's massive oil and gas project presents a real threat to the wildlife, ecosystems and communities of Arctic Alaska,” said Mike Scott of the Sierra Club, one of the complainants in the suit.

Trustees for Alaska, the Alaska Wilderness League and the Wilderness Society are some of the other groups included.

“If they're allowed to break ground, the Willow Project would be a disaster for the climate, the effects of which would be felt for decades,” Mr Scott said in a statement.

Reacting to the Biden administration's approval of the project on Monday, Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan said that legal efforts to stop the project had been expected.

“We are prepared to defend this decision against likely frivolous legal challenges from the same Lower 48 NGOs who've consistently tried to kill the Willow Project,” Mr Sullivan said, using a term Alaskans use to refer to the contiguous US.

Reuters reported that environmental law firm Earthjustice will file a separate lawsuit soon.

Alaska lawmakers lobbied strongly for the approval of the drilling plan, defending it as a source of several thousand jobs and a contributor to US energy independence, with production of 180,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak, or about 576 million barrels over 30 years.

The Willow Project will add 239 million metric tonnes of carbon emissions to the atmosphere over the next 30 years, according to Interior Department calculations, equivalent to the annual emissions of 64 coal-fired power plants.

Mr Biden has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030 compared to 2005, with the goal of achieving a net-zero emissions economy no later than 2050.