About Half the Public Backs the ConocoPhillips Willow Project in Alaska

For the latest global energy news and analysis delivered to your inbox every morning,sign up for our daily energy news briefing.

The Biden administration's approval of a controversial oil development in Alaska’s remote North Slope known as the Willow project has led tosome questionsabout whether the administration is working against its own climate goals. But a new Morning Consultsurveyshows the public is more likely than not to support the $8 billion ConocoPhillips project.

Republicans and Democrats show similar levels of support for controversial Willow project

• Nearly 1 in 2 U.S. adults said they support the ConocoPhillips project, including 48% of Democrats and 54% of Republicans.
• Support for Willow rises among older generations, with 60% of baby boomers backing the project. Among the generations, support for Willow is lowest with Gen Zers (28%), while about 2 in 5 millennials back the development.
• Considering oil developments in general, more than 1 in 2 Republicans said they believe the positive economic impacts of oil developments outweigh the negative environmental impact, while about 1 in 3 Democrats agree. On the contrary, nearly the same share of Democrats (38%) said the negative environmental impacts of oil developments outweigh the positive economic impacts.

Despite TikTok push to #StopWillow, Biden administration moves ahead with approval of oil development

Social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram have beenbuzzingwith calls to #StopWillow, an oil development proposed by ConocoPhillips in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, the country’s largest expanse of public land.

The calls were not enough to stop the Bureau of Land Management from issuing itsapprovalof the project on March 13, albeit a scaled-down version with only three drill sites instead of the five that were proposed earlier.

The nearly 500-acre development is expected toproduce180,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak, which supporters of the project say would help decrease the nation’s dependence on foreign oil — an important point as the Biden administration tries to deliver on other promises like keeping gasoline prices low.

However, theprojectwould add at least 263 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions through the use of its oil over the next 30 years. In aneffortto stifle some backlash, the Biden administration also issued anorderprotecting 16 million acres in the nearby wilderness and the Beaufort Sea from any further oil and gas leasing.

But lawsuits against the administration have already beenfiled, as expected, by coalitions of environmentalists and conservation groups alike. The groups contend that the project undermines the administration's climate goals.

这个项目是一个长期优先考虑参议员丽莎Murkowski (R-Alaska), whoworkedfor years with President Joe Biden for Willow’s approval, which was alsobackedby other state lawmakers and Alaska Native leaders.

The March 16-17, 2023,surveywas conducted among a representative sample of 2,200 U.S. adults, with an unweighted margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.