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Companies Conocophillips FollowWASHINGTON, March 14 (Reuters) - Six environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Tuesday over the Biden administration's approval of ConocoPhillips' (COP.N) Willow oil and gas project in Alaska, which they claimed could be a stepping stone to more development in an ecologically sensitive region. Trustees for Alaska, the Alaska Wilderness League, the Sierra Club, The Wilderness Society and other groups said the U.S. Interior Department approved Willow on public lands on the north coast of the state despite acknowledging and failing to mitigate "known harms" to Arctic communities, public health, wildlife and climate. The Interior Department on Monday approved three drill pads for Willow after saying last month it was concerned about the greenhouse gas emissions. The Interior Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the suits.

☆ U.S. withdraws Trump-era land deal in Alaska wildlife refuge
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Nichola Groom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland addresses the Tribal Nations Summit from an auditorium on the White House campus in Washington, D.C., U.S. November 15, 2021. REUTERS/Jonathan ErnstMarch 14 (Reuters) - The Biden administration said on Tuesday it rescinded a land swap deal struck by former President Donald Trump's interior secretary that would have allowed a new road to cut through an Alaska wildlife refuge. In a statement, the Interior Department said Secretary Deb Haaland withdrew the 2019 land exchange deal between the agency and the Alaska native King Cove Corporation, but would be open to examining other proposals to replace it. Environmentalists have said a road would destroy valuable habitat for birds along Kinzarof Lagoon, and would set a dangerous precedent for other wildlife refuges. The deal set by Trump's Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in 2019 was particularly controversial because it left open the door to commercial use of the road.

Companies Conocophillips FollowWASHINGTON, March 13 (Reuters) - The oil industry on Monday cheered the U.S. government's greenlighting of ConocoPhillips' multibillion-dollar oil drilling project in Alaska's Arctic, but court challenges could mire the plans in further delays. President Joe Biden's administration approved a trimmed-down version of the $7 billion Willow project on federal lands in a pristine area on Alaska's north coast. Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, another group involved in the previous suits, said Monday's approval for the Willow project is "still inadequate in numerous respects." Senator Dan Sullivan, a Republican from Alaska, told reporters the state's lawmakers are prepared to defend the decision against "frivolous" legal challenges. Even if Interior could beat back the oil company's challenge, it would probably only mean another delay for Willow, he said.

☆ Biden promised 'no more drilling on federal lands, period.' He just broke that pledge to approve a massive oil project in Alaska.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Eliza Relman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

On the campaign trail in 2020, Biden promised to ban all new oil drilling on federal land. But he just broke a key campaign pledge to stop all new oil drilling on federal land in a major way. A Biden administration official insisted that the government's hands were tied by leases granted to ConocoPhillips by prior administrations. Despite these protections, the Willow project is expected to come with significant environmental costs, aside from contributing to planet-warming emissions. March 13, 2023: This story has been updated with comment from a Biden administration official.

☆ Biden Interior approves controversial Alaska oil drilling project
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-13 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Climate activists gather to protest with demanding President Biden stop the Willow Project by unfurling a banner on the Lafayette Square in front of the White House on January 10, 2023 in Washington D.C. The Biden administration approved a major and controversial oil drilling plan in Alaska, known as Willow, just one day after unveiling protections for more than 16 million acres of land and water in the region. Environmental groups have long condemned the plan, arguing it undermines the administration's pledge to combat climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Prior to the president's decision, the Interior Department's Bureau of Land Management released an environmental analysis last month that proposed lowering the number of drilling sites from five to three under the project. The Interior said it had "substantial concerns" about Willow, including its direct and indirect emissions and its impact on local wildlife.

ConocoPhillips had sought to build up to five drill sites, dozens of miles of roads, seven bridges and pipelines. The Interior Department approved the project with three drill pads after saying last month that it was concerned about the greenhouse gas impacts of Willow. Its Bureau of Land Management last month recommended a "preferred alternative" that includes three drill sites and less surface infrastructure than originally proposed. The decision comes after the Biden administration on Sunday announced new protections for Alaskan land and water. Environmental groups criticized the Biden administration, saying it was trying to have it "both way" on climate change.

Alaska's elected officials say the project will create hundreds of jobs and bring billions of dollars in revenue to state and federal coffers. The state relies heavily on revenue from oil production, but output there has declined dramatically from its peak in the 1980s. "I feel the people of Alaska have been heard," U.S. Representative Mary Peltola, a Democrat from Alaska, said on a call with reporters. The Interior Department approved the project with three drill pads after saying last month it was concerned about the greenhouse gas impacts of Willow. "This was the right decision for Alaska and our nation," ConocoPhillips Chief Executive Ryan Lance said in a statement.

☆ Manchin accuses the Biden administration of appeasing 'radical activists' on climate and pledges to block Interior Department nominee
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Nicole Gaudiano | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin says he will block one of President Biden's nominees and potentially others. Manchin says he'll judge nominees on whether they're "political partisans first or Americans first." He's taking issue with the administration's framing of a law he supported as an effort to address climate change. Manchin, of West Virginia, wrote in an op-ed in the Houston Chronicle, noting that energy leaders are gathered in the city for an annual conference. Biden has touted the bill's $370 billion devoted to tackling climate change as the most significant investment the US has made to fight climate change.

☆ Biden's budget proposal calls for boosting climate resilience funding
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

President Joe Biden's budget proposal for 2024 includes billions of dollars spread across federal agencies to combat climate change, with a bulk of investment going towards boosting disaster resilience and conservation, cutting pollution and advancing clean energy technologies. Among the most ambitious of Biden's funding requests is the roughly $24 billion to help build communities' resilience to climate-related disasters including floods, wildfires, storms, extreme heat and drought. The proposal also comes as the White House continues to implement provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate bill ever passed by Congress. The spending is spread across agencies tasked with combatting climate change, advancing climate resilience and bolstering clean energy technologies. The White House proposes $16.5 billion to support climate science and clean energy innovation, with more than $5.1 billion to fund research on climate adaptation and resilience across agencies like NASA and the Interior Department.

☆ Factbox: Willow oil and gas project in Alaska sparks green opposition
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

March 3 (Reuters) - Environmental and climate activists are rallying online against ConocoPhillips’ proposed Willow oil and gas drilling project in Alaska as the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden weighs whether to greenlight the controversial plan. Here are some details about the project:WHAT IS THE WILLOW PROJECT? The Willow project is a $6 billion proposal from ConocoPhillips' (COP.N) to drill oil and gas in Alaska. The Willow project area holds an estimated 600 million barrels of oil, or more than the amount currently held in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the country's emergency supply. The Biden administration has also been urging U.S. oil companies to invest in boosting production to help keep consumer energy prices in check.

☆ Factbox: What is the Willow project in Alaska, and why do green activists oppose it?
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The sun sets behind an oil drilling rig in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska on March 17, 2011. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson/File PhotoMarch 13 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on Monday announced it would approve a trimmed-down version of ConocoPhillips' Willow oil and gas drilling project in Alaska, triggering angry reactions from climate activists. Here are some details about the project:WHAT IS THE WILLOW PROJECT? The Willow project is a $6 billion proposal from ConocoPhillips (COP.N) to drill oil and gas in Alaska. The Willow project area holds an estimated 600 million barrels of oil, or more than the amount currently held in the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve, the country's emergency supply.

☆ Biden Interior proposes first offshore wind lease sale in Gulf of Mexico
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration on Wednesday proposed the first-ever offshore wind lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico as part of a larger plan to install offshore wind sites along the country's coasts. The proposed lease sale is part of the Interior Department's plan to deploy 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy capacity by the end of the decade, which would be enough to power 10 million homes. The announcement also follows the agency's approval of the first two commercial scale offshore wind projects in the U.S. The proposed lease areas could collectively power nearly 1.3 million homes with clean energy, the Interior said. Last year, the administration released a five-year offshore drilling plan allowing some lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico.

☆ Meet the GOP leaders in charge of critical House environmental committees
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-15 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

Westerman, a representative for Arkansas's fourth congressional district, has a background in engineering and is a licensed forester. He's also introduced legislation to plant 1 trillion trees globally by 2050 in order to pull carbon out of the atmosphere. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, chair of House Committee on Energy and CommerceRep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) during a House Energy and Commerce Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee hearing on Capitol Hill on April 2, 2019 in Washington, DC. "We'll be focusing on promoting innovative technologies to facilitate our clean energy transition," Lucas told CNBC. Lucas said the committee would also conduct "robust oversight" of the spending being distributed to advance the country's clean energy sector.

☆ U.S. government backs smaller version of Conoco Alaska drilling project
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Nichola Groom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Feb 1 (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's administration said on Wednesday it would support a scaled-back version of ConocoPhillips' (COP.N) planned $6 billion Willow oil and gas drilling project in Alaska but has not yet made a final decision on the contentious proposal. Alaska officials and ConocoPhillips backed that option in letters submitted to the agency in recent months. In a statement, ConocoPhillips said the design represented "a viable path forward" for Willow and said it was ready to begin construction "immediately" upon approval. The company said the project would deliver up to $17 billion in revenue for federal and state governments and local Alaska communities. A final decision will be made no sooner than 30 days after the review's publication, the department said.

☆ Biden Administration Recommends Scaled-Back Alaskan Oil Drilling Project
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Benoît Morenne | Andrew Restuccia | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Ice forms on pipelines built near the Colville-Delta 5 drilling site on Alaska’s North Slope. Biden administration officials recommended moving forward with a scaled-down version of ConocoPhillips ’s multibillion-dollar Willow oil-drilling project in the Alaskan Arctic, but the Interior Department raised concerns about the project, signaling more hurdles ahead. The Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management issued a final supplemental environmental-impact statement Wednesday that recommends shrinking the project to three drilling sites down from the five ConocoPhillips initially proposed.

☆ Decision on Cuts to Colorado River Usage Delayed
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Jim Carlton | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Many farms in the West, along with some residential areas, rely on water from the Colorado River for their survival. The Interior Department said Tuesday it remains committed to working with seven Western states to cut their use of the shrinking Colorado River, despite their failure to come up with an agreement on how to do so by a federally requested deadline of Jan. 31. Six of the seven states—Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, but not California—on Monday submitted a possible framework for an agreement that would call for voluntary cuts and conservation totaling between 2 million acre-feet and 4 million acre-feet annually. An acre-foot is roughly the amount of water used by one family for a year.

☆ Biden administration moves toward approval for major Alaska oil drilling project
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-01 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

The Biden administration on Wednesday recommended a scaled-down version of a major oil drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska, taking a step toward approving the $8 billion Willow plan that climate groups have long condemned. The Biden administration has 30 days to issue a final decision on whether to approve the Willow project. The Willow project would produce about 600 million barrels of oil over 30 years and would generate around 278 million metric tons of carbon emissions, according to Interior estimates. Kristen Miller, executive director of the nonprofit Alaska Wilderness League, called the Willow project a "massive climate disaster" and urged the administration to reverse its decision to advance the plan. "We should be prioritizing ways to preserve this irreplaceable ecosystem, by protecting critical wildlife and subsistence resources and avoiding increased climate pollution.

☆ U.S. renames 5 sites that used racist slur for a Native woman
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( The Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +2 min

The U.S. Department of the Interior announced Thursday that it has given new names to five places that previously included a racist term for a Native American woman. The renamed sites are in California, North Dakota, Tennessee and Texas, completing a yearlong process to remove the historically offensive word “squaw” from geographic names across the country. She called the word “harmful.”Haaland, who took office in 2021, is the first Native American to lead a Cabinet agency. In September, the Interior Department announced its final vote on proposals to change the names of nearly 650 sites that contained the word. The Interior Department ordered the renaming of places with derogatory terms for Black and Japanese people in 1962 and 1974, respectively.

☆ U.S. sets up office to oversee abandoned oil well cleanup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland on Tuesday issued an order to establish an office to ensure efficient use of the Biden administration's $4.7 billion investment in the cleanup of abandoned oil and gas wells. The Orphaned Wells Program Office will be led by Kimbra Davis, who has worked at the Interior Department since 2009. Orphaned oil and gas wells are those that generally have been abandoned and are no longer producing. "The Department is standing up a new office to support states, tribes and federal land managers as they close and remediate orphaned oil and gas wells that pose environmental hazards to communities across the country," Haaland said in a statement. The number of abandoned U.S. wells has grown over the last decade, and many experts believe it will keep growing as fossil fuels are replaced with cleaner energy.

☆ The U.S. passed a historic climate deal this year — here's a recap of what's in the bill
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Emma Newburger | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +11 min

The IRA's provisions have major implications for clean energy and manufacturing businesses, climate startups and consumers in the coming years. As 2022 comes to a close, here's a look back at the key elements in the legislation that climate and clean energy advocates will be monitoring in 2023. Taking aim at methane gas emissionsSome pumpjacks operate while others stand idle in the Belridge oil field near McKittrick, California. Mario Tama | Getty ImagesThe package imposes a tax on energy producers that exceed a certain level of methane gas emissions. And the bill has a hydrogen production tax credit, which provides hydrogen producers with a credit based on the climate attributes of their production methods.

☆ U.S. holds sale of drilling rights off Alaska coast
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-30 | by ( Nichola Groom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 30 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Friday will hold a sale of oil and gas drilling rights off the coast of Alaska, the first federal auction in the region in more than five years. The agency had scrapped the Cook Inlet sale earlier this year before the IRA passed, citing a lack of industry interest. Cook Inlet stretches 180 miles (290 km) from Anchorage to the Gulf of Alaska. There are 14 active federal leases in Cook Inlet, all of which were purchased by Houston-based Hilcorp at the last federal auction in the region in 2017. Operating oil and gas platforms in the area are all in state waters, but oil production has declined substantially since peaking in the 1970s.

☆ Environmentalists sue to stop U.S. oil and gas auction off Alaska coast
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-21 | by ( Industry Insight | Saw Law Firms Move Past The Pandemic Into A More Client-Focused Service Environment | Thomson Reuters Institute | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 21 (Reuters) - Environmental groups sued the Biden administration on Wednesday to block a sale of oil and gas drilling rights off the coast of Alaska that is scheduled for next week. Interior had scrapped the Cook Inlet sale this year before the IRA passed, citing a lack of industry interest. "Cook Inlet is already experiencing severe effects of climate change, and new oil and gas leasing will only magnify those harms," the complaint said. Cook Inlet stretches 180 miles (290 km) from Anchorage to the Gulf of Alaska. Operating oil and gas platforms in the area are all in state waters, but oil production has declined substantially since peaking in the 1970s.

☆ European energy firms dominate landmark California offshore wind auction
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Nichola Groom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The auction began on Tuesday and ended Wednesday, the offshore wind industry's first chance to snag leases in waters off the U.S. West Coast. "Today’s lease sale is further proof that industry momentum -- including for floating offshore wind development -- is undeniable," U.S. Winners of the five leases were mainly divisions of European energy companies already developing projects in the U.S. offshore wind market. "The macroeconomic environment has hardened significantly over the last six to 12 months," said Alon Carmel, a partner at consultancy PA Consulting who advises offshore wind companies. About 100 megawatts of floating wind capacity is currently installed in the world compared with 50 gigawatts (GW) for conventional offshore wind.

☆ California first offshore wind auction surpasses $500 million
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( Nichola Groom | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Dec 7 (Reuters) - The first ever auction of offshore wind development rights off the coast of California was in its second day on Wednesday, with high bids topping half a billion dollars. There is currently about 100 megawatts of floating wind capacity installed in the world, compared with 50 gigawatts (GW) for conventional offshore wind, Zaidi noted. Previous federal offshore wind auctions have all been for leases in shallower waters of the Atlantic Ocean. High bids on individual leases ranged between $95.3 million and $148.8 million, according to live auction results on the BOEM web site. They include established offshore wind players like Avangrid Inc (AGR.N), Orsted (ORSTED.CO) and Equinor (EQNR.OL), which are all developing projects on the U.S. East Coast, as well as potential new entrants, including Swedish floating wind developer Hexicon (HEXI.ST) and Macquarie (MQG.AX) unit Corio.

☆ California offshore wind auction bids top $460 mln on day two
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Dec 7 (Reuters) - The first ever auction of offshore wind development rights off the coast of California entered its second day on Wednesday, with high bids topping $460 million. Previous federal offshore wind auctions have all been for leases in shallower waters of the Atlantic Ocean. After 22 rounds of bidding, high bids totaled a combined $462.1 million. Two leases off the central coast had commanded high bids of more than $100 million, with the remaining leases attracting high bids in a range of $62.7 million to $98.8 million, according to live auction results on the BOEM web site. The identities of the bidders are not disclosed during the auction, but 43 companies had been approved to participate.

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