BIDEN'S BIG OIL TRUCE

Opening a wilderness to drilling, the President recasts relations with an industry he'd vowed to phase out

- JUSTIN WORLAND

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION'S MARCH 13 decision to approve the Willow project, a multibillion-dollar oil-drilling development in the Alaskan wilderness, may have come as a shock to those accustomed to Joe Biden's criticism of the oil and gas industry. But it didn't come out of nowhere. In the past two years, unforeseen circumstances-including energy prices and the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)-have nudged the Administration to work with oil companies. The Willow project, spearheaded by ConocoPhillips, is just the latest development in the Biden Administration's evolving relations with the industry.

The dynamic was on full display earlier in the month at the world's most influential oil and gas conference, CERAWeek by S&P Global. Biden entered office promising to phase out oil and gas, but top Administration officials still flew to Houston to make the case for the oil and gas industry to embrace the transition from fossil fuels to green energy. "We need to not be polarized here," John Kerry, Biden's climate envoy, told a room packed with energy executives on March 6. "We need to collaborate."

The reasons for the détente are easy to understand on both sides. High energy prices have threatened the Administration's economic goals, pressuring Biden to switch tactics. And it has not escaped the notice of oil companies that the IRA contains provisions they are well suited to implement, and profit from.