United States President Biden revealed on Friday that he initially wanted to ban the Willow oil drilling project in Alaska, but that he approved it after his legal advisors informed him the White House would likely lose the case in court to the oil company behind the plan.
This would prevent the administration from conserving "significant amounts of Alaskan sea and land forever," Biden told reporters in Ottawa. The government hopes that ConocoPhillips Company will not challenge other decisions that protect "millions of acres of sea and land" and that it will focus only on the three extraction sites that they had already agreed on, according to the American president.
The energy that is going to be produced at the three sites will account for 1% of the total global oil production, Biden emphasized, adding that his decision was a "better gamble" to keep other territories and seas "off limits forever" for energy companies.
