Biden administration recommends major Alaska oil project

By BECKY BOHRER and MATTHEW DALY
Associated Press

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Biden administration has issued a long-awaited study that recommends allowing a major oil development on Alaska’s North Slope. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s recommendation is not final. It calls for up to three drilling sites initially, fewer than the five pursued by ConocoPhillips Alaska for the Willow project. Still, the agency’s recommendation is angering environmentalists, who have nicknamed the proposal a “carbon bomb.” The upcoming decision on the project, which could produce 180,000 barrels of oil daily, is politically perilous for President Joe Biden, who campaigned on pledges to end new drilling on public lands.