An Obama-appointed federal judge on Wednesday reversed the U.S. government’s approval of a planned $6 billion Willow oil development in Alaska from ConocoPhillips.
Alaska District Court Judge Sharon Gleason vacated the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s approval of the development for reasons having to do with the environment, more specifically climate change. She said the bureau did include an environmental analysis, but did not include greenhouse gas emissions from foreign oil consumption nor any other alternative for the project. Gleason also went after the Fish and Wildlife Service, saying they were not specific enough in their mitigation of the project’s impact on polar bears.
The oil development was approved by the Trump administration last year and was swiftly followed by lawsuits from multiple environmental groups, arguing that the government didn’t take environmental impact into effect. Economist and Financial Issues host Dan Celia explains that pipelines are actually helpful to various animals and ecosystems, and that this is only an attempt to eliminate fossil fuels.