Oil drilling project approval criticized

US President Joe Biden approved on Monday a massive oil drilling project in Alaska, a move that drew criticism from environmentalists for its potential climate impact.

The Willow Project would be a decades-long oil drilling operation in the National Petroleum Reserve, a vast area of untouched land about 320 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle and owned by the federal government.

The project aims to extract up to 600 million barrels of oil, though that oil would take years to reach the market as the project has not been built.

Burning all that oil could result in the release of about 280 million metric tons of carbon emissions into the atmosphere, the US Interior Department said.

The Biden administration has estimated that the project would generate about 9.2 million tons of carbon pollution annually, which is equivalent to the emissions produced by almost 2 million cars on the road each year, The New York Times reported.

The president also announced new protections for federal land and waters in Alaska, a move apparently aimed at tempering criticism over the Willow decision.

'Insulting' decision

"It's insulting that Biden thinks this will change our minds about the Willow Project," Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, told The New York Times. "Protecting one area of the Arctic so you can destroy another doesn't make sense, and it won't help the people and wildlife who will be upended by the Willow Project."

The Willow Project was allowed to have three drill sites, which include up to 199 total wells. Two other drill sites proposed for the project would be denied.

Environmental law group Earthjustice is preparing to file a case against the project. They plan to argue that the Biden administration has the authority to protect the resources on Alaska's public lands, CNN reported.

"We are too late in the climate crisis to approve massive oil and gas projects that directly undermine the new clean economy that the Biden administration committed to advancing," Earthjustice President Abigail Dillen said in a statement on Monday.

Christy Goldfuss, policy chief at the Natural Resources Defense Council, or NRDC, said she was "deeply disappointed" at Biden's decision to approve Willow.

The NRDC estimates that the project would produce greenhouse gas detrimental to the climate and environment emissions equivalent to that of more than 1 million homes.

Agencies contributed to this story.