The Biden Administration has just directed the Department of Interior to approve a huge oil drilling project on Alaskan federal lands. The oil giant leading this work, ConocoPhillips, calls it the Willow Project, but many of us call it the Willow Climate Bomb. The new federal permit for the project allows 30 years of oil extraction on Alaska’s Western Arctic, equivalent to 76 new coal-fired power plants.

This decision will have catastrophic consequences. The Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) released a report concluding that “developing any new oil and gas fields is incompatible with limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.”

But here’s the good news: this mistake can be undone. On Monday, March 13, the same day ConocoPhillips got their permit to drill, President Joe Biden released an executive action prohibiting all other drilling on federal lands on Alaska’s North Slope and in surrounding Arctic waters. In other words, in the same breath as he approved Willow, Biden showed that he has the ability to prohibit oil drilling through executive action.

Before ConocoPhillips breaks ground this year on new drilling, Biden must change course with an executive action that reverses the drilling permit.

The proposed Willow Project is 36 miles from Nuiqsut, a small Native Alaskan community already in the heart of fossil fuel activity. In recent years, rates of respiratory illnesses have increased rapidly in the area. The majority of the population practice a traditional subsistence lifestyle, relying heavily on local food sources, further oil infrastructure development could negatively impact their sensitive ecosystems, wildlife, and food security. The Willow Project would be an absolute disaster for local indigenous people as well as the global climate, and runs counter to Biden’s campaign promise of no new drilling on federal lands.

Despite the Administration’s announcement, it is NOT too late for Biden to reverse this awful decision. Construction of this dangerous project will not start until next year. There IS still time to do the right thing.

Sign the petition to President Biden: Fix this mistake. Reject Willow now!