PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • March 16, 2023
Imagine your house is on fire. The flames are spreading. To your relief, the fire department arrives. But instead of water, gasoline gushes out of the hose, and the flames grow. That is exactly what the Biden Administration just did to our home – planet Earth – when it approved the ConocoPhillips Willow Project in Alaska – an oil drilling project that will further fuel the flames of climate change. And whether you live in Portland, Maine, or Portland, Oregon, you should be worried and more than a little bit outraged. The craziest part is it will not even begin to produce any oil for years, by which point we will likely have enough renewables that it won’t even be needed. So this will not, as touted, reduce gas prices in the short term, and with millions of Americans petitioning against it, will also not help the president get reelected. ~ Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson is a marine biologist; Jean Flemma, was a congressional environmental policy advisor for over two decades