Biden’s Fossil Fuel Moves Clash With Pledges on Climate Change
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Press officers at the White House, the Interior Department and the Justice Department all declined to comment on how the administration’s recent decisions align with its climate pledges. The Interior Department also said it would have no comment on why Ms. Haaland reversed course on the Willow project after characterizing it as “egregious” in a letter she signed while serving in Congress.
In its court filing regarding Willow, the government said the Trump administration adequately considered its impacts on fish, caribou and polar bear habitat. It also upheld the method used by the prior administration to account for the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the project.
“Conoco does have valid lease rights,” the filing states, noting that under law the company is entitled to develop its leases “subject to reasonable regulation.”
Amy M. Jaffe, director of the Climate Policy Lab at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, said she was not concerned that a handful of states are continuing fossil fuel production.
“To use an oil analogy, we’re not changing a steamboat. We’re shifting course of a giant supertanker. It’s not going to happen overnight,” Ms. Jaffe said, adding, “It’s a time-consuming and thoughtful process to move an entire country the size of the United States, with the complexity of the economy we have, to a major energy transition.”