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[0] This week, President Biden approved a scaled -back version of the Willow Oil Drilling Project in Alaska, a decision that followed the president pausing the project two years ago.
[1] The project, which is led by the oil company, Conoco Phillips, could bring in hundreds of millions of barrels of oil and thousands of jobs.
[2] But environmentalists say they intend to do everything they can to block it.
[3] In this episode of Morning Wire, we speak with a national security and international affairs expert about the project, how it could affect America's energy supply, and how president.
[4] President Biden's energy agenda influenced the deal.
[5] I'm Daily Wire Editor -in -Chief John Vickley with Georgia Howl.
[6] It's March 18th, and this is your Saturday Extra Edition of Morning Wire.
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[16] Joining us to discuss is Victoria Coates, Senior Research Fellow in International Affairs at Heritage Foundation.
[17] So, Victoria, the Department of Interior recently approved, the Willow Oil Drilling Project in Alaska with some limitations.
[18] First, tell us what exactly has been approved and what will the project accomplish.
[19] Well, John, this is a really interesting situation where to give credit where credit is due, the administration did do the responsible thing and approved three pads for oil drilling in the so -called Willow Project in northern Alaska.
[20] Now, this project has been about a decade in process.
[21] And no drilling has taken place yet because it was approved under the Trump administration.
[22] But the minute the Biden administration came in, they announced that the approvals had not been properly reached and they were revoking them.
[23] And we've had two years now of the project in limbo.
[24] Ideally, it will produce about 160 ,000 barrels a day tapping into what we referred to is the Petroleum Reserve in northern Alaska, which is a massive, massive strategic.
[25] asset to the United States.
[26] You could think of it as our private Arctic, where we control all of the resources, and it could be potentially just a overwhelmingly powerful source of energy for the United States for decades to come.
[27] Now, is this a reversal from President Biden's campaign promises in regard to no new oil drilling?
[28] It is certainly a reversal of that blanket statement of no new drilling, but important to remember that when they approved the three pads for Willow, they did not approve the additional two that Conoco Phillips wanted to have on the site to make it truly economically viable.
[29] This was really the bare minimum that they could approve and have the project go forward.
[30] And at the same time, they issued sweeping new restrictions on any additional exploration of this northern part of Alaska where we could find, I mean, this could be the tip of the iceberg, literally, in terms of what's available up there.
[31] But they are now sending a very clear signal that under any future Democrat administration, no further exploration is going to be possible.
[32] And with the experience of Willow and the delays and the reversals, you know, it's hard to see any responsible private sector entity being willing to invest the resources necessary to harvest oil out of this area.
[33] The project is expected to create thousands of jobs and hundreds of millions of barrels of oil, but environmentalists are upset about the drilling approval.
[34] What are their concerns?
[35] Well, there are a range of concerns from the failure, apparently, of Conigofillips to fully research how this might impact polar bears.
[36] There are caribou concerns, you know, their concerns about preserving the tundra.
[37] And most ominously, what the environmental groups have signaled is that they are going to engage in apparently endless litigation against Conigof.
[38] Phillips to stop this thing from ever going forward.
[39] And at some point, you know, ConocoPhillips is going to have to cut their losses.
[40] They can't go on, you know, with interminable delays, no return on investment, and endless legal bills.
[41] So I think you're going to see a kind of an environmental lawfare campaign here where the environmental bridge try to strangle this project through litigation.
[42] The Biden administration has made several comments about there being thousands of drilling permits, but companies won't drill.
[43] Is there any truth to that and how are oil companies responding?
[44] You know, it's kind of a bait and switch situation there where sometimes they'll give the permits but they will give the leases or vice versa.
[45] You know, in this case, it looked for a while like what the plan might be would be to just permit two oil pads at Willow, at which point ConocoPhillips earlier this month at the big energy Sarah Week meetings in Houston said publicly, if we can only have two pads, we're not going to go forward.
[46] So you can see how the administration could take credit in that case for having issued the permits, then blame Conoco Phillips for not going forward because they weren't going to be able to pump enough oil to make it viable.
[47] So, as I said, it's sort of a bait -and -switch game where they say they're issuing things, but they're not giving the full structure and certainly not the full confidence to the private sector to go forward with new projects.
[48] Several industries, including the automotive and energy industries, are attempting to shift toward green energy, but was the promised timeline for transitioning to green energy too ambitious?
[49] I think that's becoming painfully clear.
[50] And particularly, you know, down here on the continental United States, with the aggressive plan to shut down coal and natural gas electricity generating plants without having the green alternatives anywhere near the posture to replace those very dense, consistent energy sources.
[51] And so I think, you know, we're going to face a reckoning as a nation, you know, are we willing to become energy vulnerable in pursuit of net zero carbon emissions?
[52] Or do we want to try to manage this in a more responsible way so that no American is energy vulnerable and instead go forward with projects like Willow in a robust, sustainable way?
[53] But that moment of reckoning may be coming sooner than we think.
[54] What does the future of energy in the U .S. look like in the next decade or so?
[55] Well, you know, it can look one of two ways.
[56] It can look like the United States is taking the lead in both the clean, responsible harvesting of fossil fuels, coal, natural gas, and oil.
[57] And then at the same time, really also taking the lead on what you'd call energies of the future.
[58] So this will be nuclear, the traditional, fission process.
[59] It could be hydrogen.
[60] It could be fusion, which we've had a very encouraging development on last December.
[61] But these are the true ways to get to net zero in a way that will provide pletiful and reliable power.
[62] The alternative to that is the doubling down on much less reliable, much less dense, renewable solar hydro and wind, which are not going to be able to sustain our electric grid, especially with the concurrent sort of rush to electrification.
[63] We're all going to drive electric cars.
[64] We're going to have electric stoves.
[65] And, you know, for this reason, we're going to have much, much more demand for electricity and much less capacity to produce it.
[66] And I think that is a much darker, colder future.
[67] And what is the Biden administration doing with nuclear?
[68] What steps is it taking, if any, regarding nuclear power?
[69] Well, it seems somewhat confused.
[70] To my read, nuclear is an excellent candidate to be a significant part of our overall energy strategy.
[71] But as with any of these major infrastructure projects, obviously they cost a lot of money and you take a while to build.
[72] So if you want nuclear, which produces no carbon emissions, so it's clean, you have to have a sustained support system for that industry to make sure that, you know, they have sufficient projects to stay in business.
[73] And so while some in the Department of Energy pay lip service to thinking nuclear is a good option, and there were some provisions for it in the so -called inflation reduction act, which is probably the best thing about that legislation, it's not a sustained support system that would be necessary to really expand our nuclear capacity.
[74] Final question.
[75] In your view, what steps should be taken right now in terms of energy.
[76] Well, I think that we need to become deeply serious about this.
[77] Certainly, the war in Ukraine has been a moment of sort of global recognition of how important, stable, plentiful energy flows are.
[78] And Russia's willingness to weaponize energy is, you know, a really chilling reminder that not everybody is a good after in this space.
[79] And so I would say for the United States, doubling down on what we have at hand in terms particularly of natural gas and making sure all of the projects that need to be permitted now are going forward freed from the burden of frivolous endless lawsuits.
[80] We need to get after our refining capacity.
[81] We have to get after our transportation infrastructure so that we can move the product to market.
[82] You know, the thing about Willow, for example, is of course, you're producing oil in northern Alaska, you've got to get that, you've refined it, and then you've got to get it to market.
[83] And so making sure we have that whole ecosystem up and running, and then at the same time, I mean, I think we should double our national investment in these future technologies and make sure the United States is the leader on them.
[84] Well, as you mentioned, we've seen over the last year just how crucial our energy policies are.
[85] Victoria, thanks for talking with us.
[86] That was Heritage Senior Research Fellow Victoria Coates, and this has been a Saturday extra edition of Morning Wire.