ASSOCIATED PRESS • February 1, 2023
The Biden administration issued a long-awaited study Wednesday that recommends allowing a major oil development on Alaska’s North Slope, and the move – while not final – drew immediate anger from environmentalists who saw it as a betrayal of the president’s pledges to reduce carbon emissions and promote clean energy sources. The decision on the Willow project – which some environmentalists have dubbed a “carbon bomb” – is politically perilous for President Biden, who campaigned on pledges to end new drilling on public lands.