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Thursday 9 March 2023

TikTok push targets Biden on Alaska’s huge Willow oil plan

From Front goals they had set forth,"
said Tyler Steinhardt, a vice
"It's just so blatantly bad president at Pique Action,
for the planet," said Hazel a company that produces
Thayer, a climate activ- social media and mini-doc-
ist who posted TikTok vid- umentaries about climate
eos using the #StopWillow solutions.
hashtag. The proposed Willow
"With all of the progress that project is within the Nation-
the U.S. government has al Petroleum Reserve-Alas-
made on climate change, ka, an area the size of Indi-
it now feels like they're turn- ana, though about half of
ing their backs by allow- the reserve is off limits to oil
ing Willow to go through," and gas leasing under an
Thayer said. "I think a lot of Obama-era rule reinstated
young people are feeling a by the Biden administration
little bit betrayed by that." last year.
At the same time, Alaska It's also where subsistence
Native leaders with ties to hunters harvest caribou,
the petroleum-rich North seals, fish and bowhead
Slope support ConocoPhil- whales to supplement ex-
lips Alaska's proposed tremely high food costs in
Willow project. They've rural Alaska, where for ex-
pushed back, saying the This 2019 aerial photo provided by ConocoPhillips shows an exploratory drilling camp at the ample a 24-ounce bag of
Willow Project would bring proposed site of the Willow oil project on Alaska's North Slope. Associated Press shredded cheese can cost
much-needed jobs and bil- $16.99.
lions of dollars in taxes and cestral homeland is most House climate officials are Energy Alliance, an oil in- ConocoPhillips Alaska said
mitigation funds to the vast, impacted have largely likely to be involved, with dustry trade organization, Willow, one of the biggest
snow- and ice-covered re- been ignored," they wrote. input from Biden himself. claims that creates a con- oil fields to be proposed in
gion nearly 600 miles (965 "We know our lands and The White House declined flict of interest for the secre- Alaska in decades, could
kilometers) from Anchor- our communities better to comment Tuesday. tary. Interior spokesperson produce up to 180,000 bar-
age. The Alaska Native than anyone, and we know Climate activists are out- Melissa Schwartz denied rels of oil a day, or about
mayors of two North Slope that resource development raged that Biden appears any conflict. 1.5% of the total U.S. oil pro-
communities — Asisaun and our subsistence way of open to the project, which Alaska's congressional del- duction. It could also help
Toovak, of Utqiaġvik, the life are not mutually exclu- they call a "carbon bomb," egation — including Dem- fill the 800-mile (1,287-kil-
nation's northernmost com- sive." and would risk alienating ocratic Rep. Mary Peltola, ometer) trans-Alaska oil
munity formerly known as Biden's decision on Willow young voters who have who is the first Alaska Na- pipeline, which is running at
Barrow, and Chester Ekak, will be one of his most con- urged stronger climate ac- tive to serve in Congress about a fourth of the peak
of Wainwright, about 90 sequential climate deci- tion by the White House as — backs the project and capacity in the 1980s, when
miles (144 kilometers) to the sions. he approaches a 2024 ree- met with top officials at the more than 2 million barrels
southwest — penned an Interior Secretary Deb Haa- lection campaign. White House last week. a day flowed through the
opinion piece for the An- land, who fought the Wil- Willow's critics include the With a decision anticipated line from the North Slope to
chorage Daily News in sup- low project as a member Pueblo Action Alliance, soon, attention to Willow is Valdez for shipment.
port of the project. of Congress, has the final which is where Halaand's growing online. In oil-friendly Alaska, there
In the debate, "the voices decision on whether to ap- daughter, Somah Haaland, "Young voters felt like this have been visible shows of
of the people whose an- prove it, although top White once worked. The Western was betraying the climate support for the project.q

U.S. sanctions Iranian officials over

women’s right abuses

en and girls. Included in the sequently, a series of sus- the use of sexual violence
sanctions are two prison pected poisonings at girls' as a means of protest sup-
officials, several firms that schools across the country, pression."
manufacture equipment which sickened hundreds Brian Nelson, Treasury's un-
for Iranian law enforce- of students, fueled claims der secretary for terrorism
ment, the commander in about the violation of and financial intelligence,
chief of the Iranian army women and girls' rights and said in a statement that
and others. prompted protests. Iran's government "treats
Nationwide protests first Secretary of State Antony women as second-class cit-
Activists hold placards reading “Woman, Life, Freedom” with erupted over the Sept. Blinken said in a state- izens and attempts to sup-
portraits of women who were killed in Iran, during a demonstration
to mark the International Women’s Day, in London, Wednesday, 16 death of 22-year-old ment that the U.S. gov- press their voices by any
March 8, 2023. Mahsa Amini while in the ernment "remains deeply means."
Associated Press custody of Iran's morality concerned that Iranian "We will continue to take
police. She was accused authorities continue to sup- action against the regime,
By FATIMA HUSSEIN and firms accused of vio- of violating Iran's strict dress press dissent and peaceful which perpetuates abuse
Associated Press lating women's rights dur- code for women by wear- protest, including through and violence against its
WASHINGTON (AP) — The ing nationwide anti-gov- ing her headscarf improp- mass arrests, sham trials, own citizens — especially
U.S. is imposing more sanc- ernment protests over the erly. Those protests have hasty executions, the de- women and girls," Nelson
tions on Iran, hitting people treatment of young wom- continued for months. Sub- tention of journalists, and said.q