This Friday, please consider calling into the 1pm hearing on HJR 6 at 907-563-9085 (or toll-free at 844-563-9085) and asking members of the House to vote “no” on this measure. It has been recommended to us to call in at least 15-20 minutes before the hearing, and additional information about testifying via phone is available here. If you are in Juneau you ca attend the hearing in person.
The proposed Willow Project threatens to exponentially harm families and communities on the Arctic Slope of Alaska, and it would exacerbate global climate destruction at a critical time. We urge you to take action to stand in solidarity with the village of Nuiqsut who will be most impacted by the Willow Project and in solidarity with Alaskans across the state who are already bearing the brunt of the climate crisis.
Nuiqsut, a primarily Iñupiaq community that has been on the frontlines of the Arctic oil boom for over a decade, does not support the Master Willow project. Both the City of Nuiqsut and the Native Village of Nuiqsut (the Tribal government) have continuously and clearly voiced opposition to the Willow Project. In their joint letter, they cite numerous concerns they have with the project, including:
the horrendous lack of adequate consultation
the significant impact on the health of Nuiqsut residents
the imminent detrimental loss of access to food/subsistence resources.
Loss of subsistence opportunities and resources could result in a $30,000 per household cost of living increase for Nuiqsut residents as they are forced to rely on more expensive and less nutritious store-bought foods. This impact has not been addressed in the government’s analysis of the project despite the EPA’s recommendation to do so.
ConocoPhillips and other oil companies operating around Nuiqsut have a history of accidents and a record of poor response to those accidents. For example, in 2022, a ConocoPhillips operation resulted in a “prolonged gas leak” that caused the company to evacuate non-residential employees while continuing to tell the community there was no harm. In 2012, Repsol operations resulted in a gas and fume blowout that enveloped the community of Nuiqsut for weeks and resulted in massive community health and prenatal health issues. The community was not adequately informed of the risks from these serious accidents and was not provided adequate air quality information. Despite this history of poor response the BLM states in their final EIS that the chance of a gas blowout would be very low and there is no cause for concern
In addition to local opposition to this project, the long-term and far reaching climate impacts of this development would be disastrous.
The Willow project would represent a massive increase in oil infrastructure in the Arctic and would lock in damaging carbon emissions for at least the next 30 years.
The climate crisis is exacerbated in the Arctic and we cannot afford new oil and gas development globally.
Science has long known that the Arctic has been warming more rapidly than other regions, and in the past decade the rate of warming has accelerated to 4 times faster than the global average.
It is projected that in the next 5 years alone, the average temperatures in the Arctic will rise to levels that will result in permafrost melting, which will put all infrastructure built on permafrost at risk for failure. This means that there are a lot more hidden costs to building new infrastructure in the arctic, how is this extra unknown cost being factored into the decision making?
The only people who stand to benefit from this development with no consequences are the oil and gas developers – not the people of Nuiqsut, not the residents of Alaska’s Arctic slope, not even Alaskans.
This is a human rights issue, not only for the local Indigenous community of Nuiqsut but for us all as citizens of this earth, we cannot afford this level of risk.