Willow Project Statement

Written by Enei Begaye, Executive Director

The continued approval of ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project is an outrageous slandering of Indigenous rights, Tribal sovereignty, and the millions of Americans, including Alaskans, who voted for strong national actions to address the climate crisis. 

A few weeks ago the Biden Administration made the shameful choice to approve the Willow Project, a massive oil and gas expansion on the north slope of Alaska. Recently a US District Court Judge struck down requests to halt construction due to community concerns and impacts  to the lands and water. Native Movement is deeply disappointed with these decisions, which will result in significant human rights violations – globally and locally. These decisions are a complete disregard for United Nations Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the community right to free, prior, and informed consent. 

Native Movement continues to uphold local community concerns for their safety and wellbeing. We underscore the demand from Alaskans to end new oil and gas development and transition to more diverse, sustainable, and regenerative economies. Native Movement is an Alaska-based non-profit organization that represents grassroots organizing led by Indigenous peoples throughout the north. 

Not all Alaskans want more massive oil and gas development, despite what Alaskan congressional leaders say. The local governments closest to the proposed development area – the City of Nuiqsut and the Native Village Nuiqsut – clearly oppose the Willow project. Native Movement remains in solidarity with the community leaders who for years have worked to protect their community from the toxic oil and gas development that surrounds them and threatens their health and their culture. We stand with local Indigenous leaders fighting to protect the Teshekpuk Caribou herd with whom their ancestors have been in sacred relationship for thousands of years. 

The Biden Administration has chosen corporate profits and greed over the well-being of Nuiqsut, a community who depends on the land for clean food and water. Last year alone, ConocoPhillips made a record $1.4 billion in Alaska – which is more money than the local and state governments are estimated to gain from Willow over the next 30 years. The Native Village of Nuiqsut has received only an average of $600,000 from drilling in the Western Arctic over the past decade – which is equivalent to what ConocoPhillips made in Alaska last summer in just two hours. 

While all eyes are on Willow now, it is notably only the tip of the iceberg in the corporate conquest to sacrifice Alaska’s lands, waters, and people to industrial extraction projects. As federal and state subsidized industries seek technological fixes for the climate crisis, Alaska faces mounting threats from increased mining, port expansions, and false climate solutions like carbon capture. Collective public outrage regarding Willow must continue and join us also in demanding that Alaska not be the resource warehouse to the rest of the world. 

We are grateful for the millions of people who opposed the Willow Project and we are grateful for the many young people and community leaders who are still on street corners and in the legislative halls voicing opposition to this project. If you have stood with us against Willow, please continue to stand with Alaskan communities as we are fighting numerous other extractive development projects. The proposed Ambler Road would be a massive “road to resources” state project that would cut through Alaska Native hunting & gathering grounds, opening up vast regions to mining projects. The proposed Donlin gold mine would be one of the largest open-pit mines in the world, destroying Alaska Native fishing culture, the land, and waters. Oil and gas drilling in the Cook Inlet off the coast of southern Alaska is a threat to ocean life and global climate health. Alaska has been touted as a “resource warehouse” to the rest of this country – please join us in declaring that Alaska is not a sacrifice zone and our lands are NOT for sale to the highest bidder.

As Alaskans work to stop extractive projects across the state, we are also deeply committed to building the future we want to see. We remember the wisdom of our ancestors who lived in right relationship with each other and the earth since time immemorial. We bring this wisdom to bear on today’s problems as we shape just and equitable transitions to regenerative, non-extractive economies. Alaskans are already building these solutions; we are developing sustainable farming practices, installing community-controlled renewable energy projects, rematriating land to Indigenous stewards, and bringing equitable broadband access to rural communities. At the Alaska Just Transition Summits we gathered to share our work, our solutions, our vision, and our joy. 

We invite everyone outraged about Willow to join us. The Willow approval is disappointing, but it’s not the end of the story. We won’t stop our work to build communities of reciprocity and joy and to create a legacy of physical, mental, and spiritual health for the next generations.

Photo by Keri Oberly • Nuiqsuit, AK

Nuiqsut City and Tribe oppose the Willow project

To read the full letter, click through to the PDF: Letter from the Native Village of Nuiqsut and City of Nuiqsut stating opposition to the Willow project and dissatisfaction with the outcome of the process.

Cover photo by Keri Oberly.

Don’t make Indigenous people pay Willow’s price

Written by Rosemary Ahtuangaruak
Mayor of Nuiqsut, Alaska and Advisory Board Member to Native Movement

For Indigenous people, defending our rights to clean air and water, continuing to live off the land, and protecting the sacredness of Mother Earth is the fight of our lives. Unfortunately, communities like mine continue to be ignored at every turn and are left to fend for ourselves as the devastating effects of our current energy policies destroy our way of life. 

That’s exactly what’s happening now as President Biden barrels towards approving ConocoPhillips’ Willow project in Alaska, just a stone’s throw away from home. The Biden administration is moving forward with a massive oil and gas project that is a climate disaster waiting to happen while refusing to listen to the voices of my constituents and community, who will bear the burden of this project with our health and our livelihoods. 

Make no mistake, Willow will be the largest new oil extraction project on federal lands and will do irreversible damage to the sensitive Arctic landscape. The proposed development will include the construction of up to 250 oil wells, 37 miles of gravel roads, 386 miles of pipelines, airstrips, and processing facilities.

My hometown, Nuiqsut, is the closest town to the proposed Willow Project, and we have the most to lose. Our people feed their families with traditional subsistence activities like fishing and hunting caribou, moose, birds, and more. The Willow project’s massive infrastructure would bulldoze straight through these crucial habitats, redirecting the animal’s migratory paths, moving them away from nearby villages, and endangering the food security of local people. That’s not to mention the damage from exposure to air and water pollution that we face. 

Recent studies have shown that the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the world. As oil is exported and sent around the globe, our communities in the Arctic are left to contend with the health impacts of pollution as well as the devastation that comes from dramatic changes to the land we live on like sea ice melt, permafrost thaw, and coastal erosion. Approval of additional oil and gas projects in the Arctic will only add more threats to our way of life. 

Our communities deserved a say. In Nuiqsut, we urged the Department of the Interior (DOI) to schedule the public input portion of the supplemental environmental review process for the project around our hunting season and subsistence activities, knowing many of those opposed to or concerned about the project would be away at hunting camp. 

There’s no time to read documents, submit comments, or organize in opposition when our people are at hunting camp. Not hunting for our subsistence is not an option – the food our communities are harvesting now will help get us through the winter. 

The Secretary of the Interior – who is an Indigenous person herself – knows these things. And for a moment, it seemed like her department did too. Unfortunately, after feigning concern and promising to extend the comment period through September, the department went back on its word and squeezed in the shortest comment period allowed by law during the worst time possible for the region. All of this happened after the draft supplemental environmental impact statement was released on a summer Friday night, which is what the government does when they want to hide bad news. 

It’s time for the Biden administration to wake up and see the Willow Project for what it is: a choice between a transition to a greener future while protecting all communities or extending our unsurvivable addiction to fossil fuels while perpetrating yet another grave injustice to Indigenous communities. If the administration chooses the wrong fork of the road, our families will struggle to put food on the table. We will have to leave our history and culture behind. And Indigenous people will continue to suffer and die from respiratory diseases at a disproportionate rate. 

From food security and chronic illness to physical and mental health to culture and traditions, there’s a lot on the line for Nuiqsut and our neighbors. It’s past time that we – and Indigenous people everywhere – have a say in our energy policy.  

Rosemary Ahtuangaruak is the mayor of Nuiqsut, Alaska.

Op-Ed Originally published at TheHill.com