ConocoPhillips’s Willow Project: Where to Find the Good in the Bad

With the Biden Administration’s recent approval of ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project, outrage had spread across many communities, including in our very own Emery community. 

The Willow Project poses many serious threats to the environment. According to an article by Greenly, the project is projected to release “a whopping 287 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over the course of 30 years’ ‘ which will not only negatively impact the fragile North Alaskan ecosystem but increase America’s dependency on oil. As a result, it will be nearly impossible for the United States to achieve the Biden Administration’s goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030.

 In spite of the widespread negative response though, the project is now underway which means that it is especially important for Americans to understand the reality of the situation and possibly see the positive aspects hidden within. 

Recently, Alaska has faced an unemployment crisis where their rate was an entire point above the national average in June 2022; however, the Willow Project provides a remedy to this problem. According to a statement from ConocoPhillips, Willow Project will create approximately 2,000 new jobs when building the project and 300 permanent positions to run it.  Giving unemployed and employed residents in Alaska the opportunity to work new jobs and improve the economy through their spending. 

According to the same article by Greenly, the project will create “a plethora of new jobs in construction to fuel the U.S. economy”. Furthermore, the ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project satisfies the Alaskan Government’s goal to “provide new jobs to residents of Alaska” in its aim to restore the state’s economy. 

Additionally, the Willow Project will boost the national economy and stimulate the state and local economy in ways never seen before. Through its enormous production of taxable oil daily, the royalties it earns off of the product, and job creation, all of these factors play into restimulating Alaska’s aging economy. However, they spark all the more controversy as debates over whether monetary gain at the price of our planet is ethical or worth pursuing.

According to a recent article by ConocoPhillips at peak production around “180,000 barrels of oil per day” will be produced, and the Willow Project will “deliver $8 billion to $17 billion” between the North-Slope, Alaskan, and Federal Economies. Specifically, an estimated “$1.3 billion” to Alaska as a whole from “production, property and income taxes” and “$1.2 billion to the North Slope Borough from property taxes”. Not to mention a sizable “$6.1 billion to the federal government from federal royalty, income taxes, and gravel sales” which includes $2.3 billion to impacted North-Slope communities in the form of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) Impact Mitigation Grant Program.

Consequently, the communities and eight indigenous tribes within the NPR-A region, or the North Slope, will not be forgotten and will be financially compensated for the impact of the Willow Project. Through this grant, they will be able to not only rebuild their damaged or impacted regions but have the opportunity to expand upon their former infrastructure with the influx of cash in the grant. 

As supported by an article in the Anchorage Daily News, the “communities on the North Slope are poised to reap financial benefits from Willow…supporting social services, youth programs, civic facilities, and more.” Furthermore, the Willow Project lays the foundation to “ ensure a viable future for our communities, creating generational economic stability for our people and advancing our self-determination.” 

In the end, the Willow Project will always remain a stain on America’s shift toward a cleaner world; however, even within the most unsettling times, there are some positives to light the way.