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Willow is about allowing Native communities to continue living the types of lives we have for generations and to create a better life for our future …This project is an extraordinary opportunity for the North Slope Inupiaq people. For us, this decision is personal. That’s because the future of the Willow Project will have a direct effort on the daily lives of each person in our community. Willow has followed a thorough and lengthy federal review process already, one that threatens to drown out the voices of us most directly impacted. Any further delay of the project will prolong our financial difficulties and threaten our current way of life.

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ICAS, the Borough and ASRC support the development of the Willow Project… While initially wary of any development on our lands, through open communication and transparency in planning and Iñupiat ingenuity, our relationship with the oil and gas industry has turned into a partnership. A partnership that has brought significant economic benefits to the region that would have otherwise been absent.

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The Willow Project is a critical opportunity for the U.S. to expand domestic energy supplies and security while creating economic opportunities to help Alaska recover from the pandemic.

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Resource development and traditional lifestyles are not mutually exclusive. In fact, it is the very existence of viable village communities that allowed North Slope and Alaska Native residents to enjoy a healthy subsistence lifestyle.

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Developing Willow MDP is essential for our nation’s national security and global competitiveness within the energy industry. Producing domestic energy supports American jobs while reducing the need to import from foreign countries.

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The UA strongly supports approval of the Willow Project. This is a critical infrastructure project that would deliver reliable energy to consumers and would provide billions of dollars in economic investment to local communities. It would also create many good-paying union jobs for our members and other workers at a time when these jobs are critically needed.

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ConocoPhillips has a 50-year track record of environmentally and socially responsible development on the North Slope of Alaska, and we believe Willow is the right project in the right place at the right time.

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The Willow Project will not have a significant impact on the environment, and it will maintain high standards for safety. This project will also put many Operating Engineers to work, along with others in the skilled trades. These jobs pay family-sustaining wages and offer strong health and pension benefits. Furthermore, construction of this project will provide much needed revenue to Alaska and the North Slope community.

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50% of the federal royalties from Willow production will be available to fund a grant program administered by the State of Alaska for the benefit of affected communities. Under BLM’s estimate, this program will make $2.6 billion available over the 30-year life of the project to communities impacted by development. These grant funds will be available to NPR-A villages — historically, grants have been provided to Utqiagvik (Barrow), Atqasuk, Nuiqsut, Anaktuvuk Pass, and Wainwright — to serve public safety, public health, climate change resiliency, education, and other important public uses.

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The expeditious approval of this crucial project would greatly benefit Alaska, our nation, and the world, while demonstrating the administration’s commitment to addressing inflation, high energy costs, the need for greater energy security, and environmental justice initiatives … Willow will be a significant economic driver for Alaska, creating thousands of high-paying construction jobs, primarily with labor and union workers, and hundreds of permanent positions … The economic development and energy security benefits that Willow will provide can be realized through a ROD that is completed in time for this year’s winter construction season to proceed. Alaskans are counting on you to make that happen.

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Willow is estimated to support hundreds of new, permanent, and well-paying jobs, many of which will be union jobs — a remarkable number for any project in Alaska. Many of its jobs will be filled by those who live in the North Slope Borough, while others will help Alaskans who remain unemployed or underemployed in the wake of the pandemic. This is particularly important for an industry that lost an estimate 30% of its jobs between 2019 and 2021 due to the pandemic.

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Not allowing the Willow Project to efficiently move forward would be the biggest environmental justice impact of all. Delaying or stopping the first major production in NPR-A would deprive NPR-A communities of a long-promised partnership in the benefits of resource production. The Willow development is the answer to mitigating a host of environmental justice impacts to NPR-A communities, but without the production royalties from projects like Willow and future NPR-A developments this program will not be able to generate revenue and fund necessary mitigation projects as promised by the federal government.