WASHINGTON POST • March 12, 2023
The Biden administration will approve one of the largest oil developments ever on federal land Monday, according to two people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations, a day after announcing sweeping protections for more than 16 million acres of land and water in Alaska. Opponents hoped Biden would reject energy giant ConocoPhillips’s multibillion-dollar drilling project, called Willow, on Alaska’s North Slope. Seeking to offset concern about the development, Biden will declare the Arctic Ocean off limits to oil and gas leasing. The department will also write new regulations protecting nearly 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska,