Stop Willow? Let's Go!
According to documents filed last week in Anchorage, ConocoPhillips said the federal court case may be make or break for the project.
An article published yesterday by Alaska Beacon lays out a bleak legal path ahead of ConocoPhillips.
If Alaska District Court Judge Sharon Gleason cancels required federal approvals, âthe Willow project is highly unlikely to proceed at all,â said Connor Dunn, vice president of Willow for ConocoPhillips.
Dunnâs statement came as ConocoPhillips filed a legal reply to several environmental groups who sued the federal government earlier this year and asked Gleason to overturn existing federal approvals as inadequate.
The plaintiffs include the Alaska Wilderness League, Sierra Club and Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic.
A similar lawsuit, filed in 2020, overturned a previous federal approval and forced regulators to restart their process, and new approval was granted this spring.
The federal government is opposing the environmental groupsâ lawsuit and is backed by ConocoPhillips, the state of Alaska, the North Slope Borough, and a variety of companies and industry groups who hope to see the project developed.
The environmental groups are scheduled to reply to ConocoPhillips and other defendants by mid-September, allowing Gleason to decide the case before the start of the winter construction season.
If the case isnât resolved by then and ConocoPhillips canât work this winter, there is a risk that the company could fail to meet the requirements of its land lease with the federal government.
Willow would be the first large project constructed in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, and ConocoPhillipsâ 30-year lease was signed in 1999.
Under the terms of the agreement, the first oil must flow by September 2029. Writing to Gleason, Dunn said that âtimely first oil requires a highly integrated series of construction milestones from 2023 through 2029, and there are no opportunities to further compress the construction schedule that would not create major execution risk.â
Itâs possible that the federal government allows a lease extension, he said, but thatâs not guaranteed.
If Gleason overturns the existing approval altogether through whatâs known as a âvacaturâ order, it would likely cost ConocoPhillips at least two winter construction seasons, Dunn said, because of the time needed for federal regulators to redo the approval process.
âIt could take years, depending on market conditions, to reassemble the right team to execute the project safely and efficiently,â Dunn said. âThis is a real, practical consequence of a vacatur order, and it would weigh heavily against ConocoPhillips moving forward with a project that faces a risk of lease expiration.â
We need to watch this development closely and refocus on supporting climate action and #stopwillow. Support the legal groups fighting this in the courts and making progress! Winning this could be the final nail in the coffin for the Willow Project! The project approval was a huge blow, but the fight is far from over! I will link the legal groups below, find them on social media, amplify their posts, and leave love in the comments. Supportive comments go a long way for engagement, setting the tone in the comment sections, and itâs nice to the folks running the accounts. Thank you, everyone, ahead of time. This coming season will be wild.
Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic
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