The U.S. House of Representatives just passed a bill to expand oil and gas drilling on our public lands and in the ocean. H.R. 21, the Strategic Production Response Act, would require the government to offset any withdrawals from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with new drilling leases of up to 10 percent of federal lands and oceans.
“Whether on land or at sea, drilling poses an unacceptable risk for our wildlife, wild places and waterways,” said Lisa Frank, executive director of Environment America’s Washington Legislative Office. “When we drill, we spill. At a time when we should be moving away from this destructive, dangerous practice — and expanding the use of renewable power — this bill doubles down on the outmoded energy of the past.”
President Biden has said he’ll veto H.R. 21, the Strategic Production Response Act, if it gets to his desk, but our public lands are still at risk, including one very special place in the Arctic. Home to polar bears and caribou, a snowy sanctuary in the Western Arctic could soon be irrevocably harmed if a massive ConocoPhillips drilling project moves forward.
Not only will the Willow Project destroy habitat with drill sites, miles of gravel roads, bridges, an airstrip, hundreds of miles of ice roads and a gravel mine in this fragile ecosystem, it’s also a giant carbon bomb. It would be the single largest oil extraction project on U.S. federal land and release annual emissions equivalent to 66 new coal fired power plants.
Projects like Willow could become more common if the Strategic Production Response Act is enacted, but we still have a chance to stop it.