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Alaska, The Willow Project, and The Future of Fossil Fuels : 1A On March 13 the Biden administration approved a new oil venture in Alaska called the Willow Project. More than 4.6 million people petitioned against its approval.

It will allow the energy company ConocoPhillips to drill for oil in the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska's Northern slope. The company says it will produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day.

But will the Willow Project turn into a "carbon-bomb?"

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Alaska, The Willow Project, and The Future of Fossil Fuels

Alaska, The Willow Project, and The Future of Fossil Fuels

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A group of environmental advocates protest the Willow Project outside the Department of the Interior. Jorgelina Manna-Rea hide caption

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Jorgelina Manna-Rea

A group of environmental advocates protest the Willow Project outside the Department of the Interior.

Jorgelina Manna-Rea

Alaska is no stranger to oil production. But some Americans would prefer that wasn't the case.

The Biden administration approved a new oil venture on March 13 called the Willow Project. More than 4.6 million people petitioned against its approval.

It allows the energy company ConocoPhillips to drill for oil in the National Petroleum Reserve on Alaska's Northern slope. The company says it will produce 180,000 barrels of oil per day.

The project has been approved, but the Department of the Interior says its scope has been reduced by 40 percent. Instead of five drilling pads, there will be three.

But even a pared down project doesn't align with President Joe Biden's climate goals. He made it a point in his 2020 campaign to criticize drilling on federal land.

Many environmentalists say the Willow Project will be a "carbon-bomb."

We discuss the debate over drilling for oil in Alaska and the future of fossil fuels with Joshua Rhodes, research scientist at The University of Texas at Austin's Webber Energy Group; Nagruk Harcharek, president of the Voice of the Arctic Inupiat; and Nicholas Kusnetz, oil and gas reporter at Inside Climate News.

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