350.org Responds to Biden Approval of Yet Another Mega Fossil Fuel Project in Alaska

By Jessel Renolayan First Posted: Apr 16, 2023 11:03 PM EDT

President Biden and the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have approved exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the Alaska LNG project, a $38.7 billion infrastructure project that could result in over 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide pollution emissions annually.

(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

This comes barely a month after Biden approved the Willow Oil Drilling Project, a major oil drilling operation to be constructed on Alaska's North Slope, despite major opposition from the climate justice community, including Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic and Alaska Wilderness League.

The DOE approvals are among the last approvals needed to move the Alaska LNG project forward, though it faces a series of legal challenges waged by environmental groups represented by Earthjustice.

Jeff Ordower, 350.org's North America Director's Response

"President Biden has again betrayed his own climate promises and further eroded trust by allowing Alaska LNG to move ahead on public lands. Approving the Willow Project was already a major betrayal of frontline communities, but Biden claimed that he would stop all other fossil fuel development in the Alaskan Arctic.

"Make no mistake: though proponents may try to confuse us by calling it 'natural gas,' LNG is a fossil fuel, NOT a solution. This plan is yet another "carbon bomb" that will disproportionately harm frontline and Indigenous Alaskan communities and will exacerbate the effects of climate change across the country and world. Our movement will not allow government leaders and fossil fuel proponents to mislead the public with empty concessions. Our people power has only grown since Biden approved the Willow Project. This is a moment of reckoning, and we call on President Biden to do the only thing that will make him the climate president he claims to be: halt ALL new fossil fuels projects, whether coal, oil, or fossil gas, and transition swiftly and completely to justly sourced, justly implemented renewable energy."