BUT DEPARTMENT OF INTERIOR MAY STILL BLOCK SEISMIC WORK; COMMENT PERIOD ENDS DEC. 8
It was a bad Friday for Earthjustice, one of the leading litigating groups trying to stop the North Slope Willow project from its winter construction season.
U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason rejected the request for an injunction from the groups trying to stop progress this winter, while their legal fight against the approved project continues at the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
On Nov. 9, Gleason had declined to halt the project that had been approved by the Biden Administration. Earthjustice claims that Willow will be “catastrophic for the climate, and we will not drop our challenge.”
But for now, with Friday’s ruling, ConocoPhillips can continue its winter construction, while the appeal is pending.
Back in 2021, the Ninth Circuit sided with environmentalists who were challenging the Trump Administration’s approval of the project, which was then put on hold under President Joe Biden until the Biden Administration realized it would end up losing in court if it walked back the approval.
As written about earlier in Must Read Alaska, one of the groups litigating against the project is a phantom that has no actual legal standing, but is a type of ghost group that popped up to sue. Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic has no taxpayer identification number and is not a legal entity, but for some reason has been allowed to sue.
Other litigants against the project are the Center for Biological Diversity and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Willow could produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak, according to ConocoPhillips. As many as 2,500 construction jobs and some 300 permanent jobs are projected to be created by Willow, which is located on the plain of the North Slope of Alaska, within the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, in an area called the Bear Tooth Unit West of Alpine.
The environmentalists are not out of options, because permits still need to be granted for some of the important seismic work that can only be conducted in the winter.
Dec. 8 is the Department of Interior’s deadline for public comment on seismic exploration at the Willow site this winter. ConocoPhillips Alaska, Inc. has requested authorization from the Bureau of Land Management to conduct a three-dimensional geophysical winter seismic survey within the Willow Development area of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska for the 2023-2024 winter season on lands managed by the BLM Arctic District and the Kuukpik Native Corporation. The seismic survey would be conducted entirely on BLM managed lands.
Environmental groups are urging their supporters to submit comments opposing the winter work. The comment link at the Department of Interior can be found here.
