President Joe Biden is trying to pull a fast one. His approval of the Willow oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope runs contrary to everything he has promised Americans — and the world — about protecting the environment, confronting climate change and reducing America’s dependence on fossil fuels. No matter how he rationalizes it, this is hypocrisy, and whether hypocrisy arises on the left or right, we have to call it out where we see it.
Approving the ConocoPhillips drilling project in the fragile Alaskan wilderness is a cold political calculation on Biden’s part. If he were to reject the 150,000-barrel-per-day project, Republican presidential candidates would certainly use it to blame him and other Democrats for high gasoline prices — conveniently ignoring the post-pandemic recovery and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as, by far, the primary culprits for higher pump prices.
Environmentally conscious Democrats are livid that Biden is proceeding with the Alaska project. The president obviously feels he could fend off any challenge from the left ahead of his expected reelection bid in 2024, and even if hard feelings persist among climate-change activists in the general election, the left would rally to his support because the GOP alternative would be far worse.
