President Joe Biden’s decision to authorize the massive Willow oil project in Alaska left Interior Secretary Deb Haaland with a bit of explaining to do.
The approval underscores contradictory challenges of confronting climate change while presiding over the nation’s conventional energy development.
In a video released online, Haaland cast the approval as the consequence of decisions “inherited” from past administrations to lease the land ConocoPhillips aims to tap. “As a result, we had limited decision space but we focused on how to reduce the project’s footprint,” Haaland said.
“The clean energy transition will not happen overnight, but it will happen ...