Environmental Groups Sue Biden Administration to Stop the Invasive Willow Oil Drilling Project

The people are not letting the government off the hook for breaking promises. Numerous conservation, environmental, local, and Indigenous advocacy groups have filed lawsuits against the government to stop Willow, a massive oil drilling project in Alaska set to pillage up to 600 million barrels of crude oil over 30 years.

A lawsuit filed Wednesday, led by environmental law organization Earthjustice, accuses the Biden administration of failing to consider alternatives that could have reduced greenhouse gas emissions and environmental impacts. The gargantuan oil drilling operation is projected to emit the equivalent of roughly two million cars’ worth of carbon pollution every year.

Biden’s approval of the Willow project comes after he repeatedly promised “no more drilling.”

“Now we have to step up and fight for these priceless wild places and the people and animals that depend on them. It’s clear that we can’t count on Biden to keep his word on confronting climate change and halting drilling on public lands,” said Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity.

The lawsuit also charges the administration did not assess the full climate impact of the project, neglecting to consider additional pollution from future development once the project’s infrastructure is in place. Earthjustice cites ConocoPhillips’s description of the project to investors as the “next great Alaska hub,” and that as much as three billion barrels’ worth of oil may lie nearby for them to further plunder from inside the earth.

The lawsuit also charges the Bureau of Land Management, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service with failing to consider how the project directly violates their mandates of protecting surface resources and endangered species.

“Permitting Willow to go forward is green-lighting a carbon bomb. It would set back the climate fight and embolden an industry hell-bent on destroying the planet,” said Christy Goldfuss, chief policy impact officer for the Natural Resources Defense Council.

The Wednesday lawsuit follows one filed the day before by another six groups, led by Trustees for Alaska, which leveled similar charges against the government. The lawsuits note that the now-approved project violates similar laws that led a court to void previous approval for the project signed off on by Trump.

“ConocoPhillips has made record profits year after year and hopes to continue to do so at the cost of our communities and future generations,” said Siqiñiq Maupin, executive director of Sovereign Inupiat for a Living Arctic. “The true cost of Willow is a future where we lose our traditional practices and diet because of the pollution and destruction to land, water, and climate caused by the fossil fuel industry’s unending greed.”

Senator Lindsey Graham thinks the best response to a Russian plane allegedly colliding with an American drone is to go on the offensive, despite the West trying for more than a year to avoid outright conflict with Moscow.

“We should hold [Russia] accountable and say that if you ever get near another U.S. asset flying in international waters, your airplane would be shot down,” Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity Tuesday night.

Tensions rose Tuesday after a Russian jet was accused of clipping an unmanned U.S. drone over the Black Sea. Washington accused Moscow of being reckless and unprofessional. Russia has denied that its plane was involved and demanded the United States cease flights near its borders.

Graham has been unwavering about the need to oppose Russia and help Ukraine fend off Moscow’s invasion—often calling for greater escalation. Last year, Graham suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin should be assassinated in order to end the conflict.

Earlier Tuesday, Graham insisted on Twitter that aiding Kyiv should be an American “priority” and compared Russian President Vladimir Putin’s attempt to seize Ukraine to Hitler’s rise to power.

The South Carolina lawmaker was also one of just three senators (and the only Republican in the group) who visited Ukraine in January, when the South Carolina lawmaker urged the U.S. to send tanks to Kyiv.

But throughout the entirety of Russia’s war in Ukraine, which has now gone on for more than a year, Western countries have been clear that they want to avoid direct conflict with Moscow. Part of the reason why the U.S. was so hesitant to send Kyiv tanks in the first place was because Russia has repeatedly warned that providing tanks to Ukraine would be seen as a major provocation.

Putin also warned in September he would use nuclear weapons in retaliation if “the territorial integrity of our country is threatened.”

Tennessee Republicans are continuing the assault on trans people’s rights, this time by arguing they shouldn’t be able to have their driver’s licenses reflect who they are.

On Monday, Tennessee state Senate Republicans passed a bill that would define “sex” in the state code as one’s gender assigned at birth.

Senate Bill 1440 bill defines evidence of a person’s biological sex as included, but not limited to, “a government-issued identification document that accurately reflects a person’s sex listed on the person’s original birth certificate.” Consequently, people would not be able to stray away from that original documentation; trans people would not be able to modify their driver’s licenses or other government-issued IDs to match their identity.

Beyond being another hateful iteration of the conservative assault on trans people’s rights, the bill could have the state of Tennessee losing buckets of money as the legislation would contradict federal guidelines. If it passes the bill, Tennessee could lose $1.2 billion worth of federal education funding, and another $750,000 of federal grants dedicated towards supporting women and children. Other state and local government entities could be impacted as well.

Even with that potentially astronomical loss of funding, the bill passed the Senate 27-6, exhibiting the relentless urge Republicans have to target trans people at any cost.

“This is their latest cruel attempt to stigmatize, marginalize, and erase the LGBTQ+ community, particularly transgender Tennesseans,” said Human Rights Campaign Legal Director Sarah Warbelow. “Let’s be clear: the goal of this bill is to exclude the LGBTQ+ community from nondiscrimination protections in the state of Tennessee and to perpetuate a false narrative of who transgender people are.”

Having a driver’s license or birth certificate match one’s identity would naturally be significant personally to transgender people—but it would also affirm their identity in a legal sense, and shield them from further discrimination and harassment.

Since 2015, Tennessee has enacted 14 anti-LGBTQ laws, according to the Human Rights Coalition—including a bill signed this month by Governor Bill Lee that prevents transgender youth from accessing affirming medical care.

The proposed Tennessee legislation is part of a broader assault that has led to over 100 anti-trans health care bills being introduced throughout the country.

Senate Republicans rebuked Florida Governor Ron DeSantis Tuesday for saying that continuing to aid Ukraine to fight off the Russian invasion was not in the United States’ “vital national interests.”

The Republican Party has grown more divided in recent months over how long the U.S. should continue to send aid to Kyiv—and how much it should send. DeSantis, who is rumored to be considering a presidential run in 2024, made clear on which side of the debate he stands.

“While the U.S. has many vital national interests…becoming further entangled in a territorial dispute between Ukraine and Russia is not one of them,” DeSantis said in response to a questionnaire from Fox News host Tucker Carlson Monday night.

Several prominent members of the Senate GOP were quick to condemn DeSantis’s remarks. Fellow Floridian Marco Rubio, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, argued that the U.S. does “have an interest” in assisting Ukraine because it provides another opportunity to be tougher on China.

“Well, it’s not a territorial dispute in the sense that any more than it would be a territorial dispute if the United States decided that it wanted to invade Canada or take over the Bahamas,” Rubio told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt on Tuesday. “Just because someone claims something doesn’t mean it belongs to them.”

“I don’t know what he’s trying to do,” Rubio added. “Obviously, he doesn’t deal with foreign policy every day as governor.”

Rubio has been outspoken about continuing aid for Ukraine, but he appeared to flag in December, saying constituents were likely wondering why the U.S. was “spending all this money on someone else’s war.” He also said it would be tough to continue getting all the votes necessary for the huge tranches of aid funds, implying that there could be a time limit on how much longer U.S. aid would continue.

Texas Senator John Cornyn said he was “disturbed” by DeSantis’s stance. “I hope he feels like he doesn’t need to take that Tucker Carlson line to be competitive in the primary,” Cornyn told reporters. “It’s important for us to continue to support Ukrainians for our own security.”

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham didn’t mention DeSantis by name, but he was adamant on Twitter that “those who believe that Russia’s unprovoked and barbaric invasion of Ukraine is not a priority for the United States… are missing a lot.”

Both Cornyn and Graham have been unwavering in their support for continuing Ukraine aid. Graham was one of three senators (and the only Republican in the group) who visited Ukraine in January, during which the South Carolina lawmaker urged the U.S. to send tanks to Kyiv.

Graham and Cornyn also both compared stopping Ukrainian aid to countries that failed to intervene during Hitler’s rise to power.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also supports continued aid for Ukraine, one of the few things on which he and his Democratic counterpart Chuck Schumer agree.

Presidential candidate Nikki Haley slammed DeSantis and said he was “copying” Donald Trump. Haley, who served as Trump’s ambassador to the United Nations, noted that she had told Carlson aiding Ukraine was in U.S. interests.

But some Republicans, mostly in the House of Representatives, are beginning to lose patience with how much aid the U.S. is sending to Kyiv. Representative Matt Gaetz introduced the “Ukraine Fatigue Resolution” in February, which called to end all U.S. military and financial aid to Ukraine. The bill has 10 co-sponsors but is unlikely to pass, even though Speaker Kevin McCarthy has also called to cut back on aid.

While some half a million Israelis protest the country’s authoritarian escalation, and while Israel has killed Palestinians at a rate of nearly one every day so far in 2023, disgraced former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has announced he is launching an organization called “Progressives for Israel.”

“You can’t denounce antisemitism, but waver on Israel’s right to exist and defend itself,” said Cuomo in his announcement Monday, linking criticism of Israel to antisemitism. Some view such an equation as antisemitic, as it treats Jews as monolithic in their stances on Israel as a state.

“I’m starting an organization called Progressives for Israel. And I’m going to call the question for Democrats,” Cuomo continued. “Do you stand with Israel, or do you stand against Israel? Because silence is not an option.”

Cuomo’s challenge coincides with waves of protesters both inside and outside of Israel speaking out against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to weaken the judiciary’s ability to check the power of other government branches—giving Netanyahu’s far-right coalition greater ability to oppress Palestinians, and help the prime minister weasel out of his own corruption trials.

Cuomo’s puzzling move comes as he reportedly considers taking on Senator Kirsten Gillibrand in the 2024 New York Senate primary—which is all the more puzzling given his recent track record.

Cuomo resigned from the governor’s office in 2021 while embroiled in scandal. At least 11 women accused the governor of sexually harassing them during his time in office. Cuomo and his aides also willfully undercounted and concealed nursing home Covid-19 death numbers. He attempted to shield political donors who were hospital and nursing home executives from lawsuits related to Covid. And he allegedly granted special Covid test access during the early phases of the pandemic to family members and other well-connected figures.

Cuomo wrote a memoir amid it all entitled American Crisis: Leadership Lessons From the Covid-19 Pandemic. Cuomo was then accused of using his and his employees’ taxpayer-funded time to work on the book that secured him a $5.1 million deal.

When all was said and done, even President Biden called on Cuomo to resign after the reports of the 11 accusers came out. Cuomo’s brother and CNN anchor Chris was fired months later, amid an inquiry into his own sexual harassment accusations, and whether he used his television platform to help his governor brother stave off his own accusations.

Even after all the damage Governor Cuomo left in his wake, he announced his new organization. It’s not clear what exactly is progressive about tying concern for the welfare and safety of Jewish people to unequivocal support for a state that acts as an occupying force, and which even many of its own citizens deem out of control. What is clear is how cynical the move is, if it is indeed a warm-up to an attempt at a political comeback.

“God isn’t finished with me yet,” Cuomo proclaimed last year in his first public appearance after resigning in 2021. “I have many options in life and I’m open to all of them,” he said during a speech in which he railed against “cancel culture” and the media for apparently being the reason he and his brother faced consequences for their own actions. “Let’s make some trouble.”

It seems like the trouble has begun.