Biden is Walking a Tightrope on Climate Change Policy
Photo by Ryan Jenkinson/Story Picture Agency/Shutterstock
A year ago, when the Biden administration issued a final approval for the massive Willow oil drilling project in Alaska’s North Slope, the response from climate activists and youth groups was immediate. The decision, according to the Sunrise Movement’s executive director Varshini Prakash, “abandons” young voters who had been promised an end to fossil fuel extraction on public land. Ben Jealous, president of the Sierra Club, called it a “major breach of trust.”
The move, sandwiched between truly meaningful climate action throughout Biden’s years in office, highlights the delicate dance he is attempting. The administration has undoubtedly produced more climate change progress than any other, but with Willow and other policies he has risked alienating young voters in particular as November approaches. And if he alienates enough of them, that could mean a second Trump presidency and an unequivocal disaster for the climate: a second go-round of abandoned international treaties, increased drilling just about everywhere, a host of likely rolled back regulations, and an overall increase in CO2 emissions equivalent to what Japan and the European Union combined produce every year.
Willow, owned by ConocoPhillips, will yield 600 million barrels of oil spread out over 30 years – a window that runs conspicuously past the global net-zero goal of 2050 – and will help emit the equivalent of two million gas-powered cars’ worth of carbon dioxide annually. The administration claimed its hands were tied, legally speaking – a common refrain, reflective of Biden’s generally practical approach to policy maneuvering, but one that doesn’t appear to be a particularly winning argument from someone who as a candidate repeatedly promised “no more drilling on federal lands, period. Period, period, period.”