As president, Joe Biden has talked a lot about moving the United States away from fossil fuels to help meet his target to slash the nation’s planet-heating emissions in half by 2030. But it’s far from clear how this squares with that plan. According to The New York Times, the Biden administration has decided to back an enormous Trump-era oil and gas project drilling project in the North Slope of Alaska. The plan, approved by the Trump administration in October, was blocked in court in February when environmental groups sued the federal government, arguing it had overlooked the consequences for local wildlife and the global climate crisis. On Wednesday, the Biden administration filed new papers in U.S. District Court for Alaska defending the Trump-era project. The Interior Department refused a Times request to explain how its backing for the mass drilling project project fits with its climate pledges.
