This week, House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.), Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chairman Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) and U.S. Rep. Nick Begich (R-Alaska) inquired into six radical environmental groups’ efforts to stop the Willow Project on Alaska's North Slope. The project is key to establishing American energy dominance and energy security for Alaska. The project has historically enjoyed wide bipartisan and Native Alaskan support. In letters to the groups, the members wrote:

“The House Committee on Natural Resources is conducting oversight related to [the Center for Biological Diversity, Defenders of Wildlife, Earthjustice, Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace and the Natural Resources Defense Council] efforts to derail the widely supported bipartisan Willow Project. The Committee is particularly concerned with [the groups’] coordination with other activist special interest groups, many of which employ lawfare strategies, including ethically dubious sue and settle tactics, to not only champion a disdain for established essential multiple use principles, but also drown out the voices of native Alaskans while simultaneously undermining American energy independence.”

Background

The Willow Project (Willow) has long received overwhelming bipartisan support to bring Alaska’s vast North Slope oil resources to market. Willow, with a gravel footprint of approximately 385 acres in the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A), is estimated to be able to produce up to 180,000 barrels of oil daily at its peak, totaling about 600 million barrels of recoverable oil.

The economic benefits of these North Slope oil resources are invaluable. Willow is estimated to generate up to $17.1 billion in federal, state and local royalties and tax revenues. Because the project will require approximately nine million work hours, Willow is estimated to create about 2,500 construction jobs and 300 long-term, stable, high-paying jobs that will directly benefit native Alaskan communities in and around the NPR-A. The strategic and economic benefits of the project elicit overwhelming support from native Alaskans for Willow, especially from those who live in and around the North Slope.

Read the Committee's letter to the Center for Biological Diversity here.

Read the Committee’s letter to Defenders of Wildlife here.

Read the Committee’s letter to Earthjustice here.

Read the Committee’s letter to Friends of the Earth here.

Read the Committee’s letter to Greenpeace here.

Read the Committee’s letter to the Natural Resources Defense Council here.