Thank you for committing to ending environmental injustice, acknowledging our obligation to our children and grandchildren to address the climate crisis, and promising a new era of respect for America’s Indigenous Peoples. The Willow oil project is so large and so detrimental to the Alaska Native village in its shadow that approving it would thwart all three of these promises.

Willow is a threat to the Arctic and the Iñupiat, the people who have lived and stewarded Arctic Alaska for millennia. Nuiqsut, the village that would suffer the impacts of Willow, gets the majority of its food from subsistence hunting and fishing. Oil development in the region has encircled the town and has already eliminated or degraded many important hunting and fishing grounds, making it hard for people to put food on the table. As your own agencies acknowledge, Willow would significantly impact Nuiqsut’s ability to continue subsistence activities.

The lands the Iñupiat inhabit have already become a “sacrifice zone” for an industry that has no future. We agree with you when you said the economy should work for everyone, and that means the Iñupiat, too. Building Willow on Iñuipiat traditional lands would pollute their air, water, and land, posing a direct threat to their health, food security and cultural identity. Iñuit already face disproportionately high rates of chronic illnesses, especially respiratory and cancers. Instead, we call on you to ensure that your commitment to a green and sustainable future is a commitment to the people on Alaska’s North Slope, too.

To avoid irreversible climate devastation and to reach the US goal of achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050, we must end new investment in fossil fuel projects. Approval of a project the size of Willow would be climate suicide. Coastal villages in Alaska are losing land to erosion at breakneck speed, permafrost thaw is causing dramatic changes to the ecosystem and the destruction of oil and other infrastructure, and Alaska Natives are at risk of losing their jobs, homes, and lives in a place which is warming at four times faster than the rest of the world.

The federally recognized tribe and the city government of Nuiqsut have spoken. They have told your administration how it has disregarded their concerns, mischaracterized their opportunities for providing input into the decision-making process, and ignored all options that would avoid significant impacts to environmental justice and their traditional way of life.

President Biden, make the right choice and put our future over Big Oil’s profits. Stop Willow before it’s too late.

Signed:

Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic

Indigenous Environmental Network

Honor The Earth

ikiyA Collective

Don't Waste Arizona

Beka Economopoulos

Nicaragua Center for Community Action

7 Directions of Service

Anthropocene Alliance

Cherokee Concerned Citizens

Alaska Community Action on Toxics

South Carolina Indian Affairs

Citizen's Committee for Flood Relief

MRights

Black Hills Clean Water Alliance

United Native Americans

Progressives for Climate

Portland Harbor Community Coalition

The Coalition for Wetlands and Forests (CWF)

Idle No More San francisco Bay

Clean, Healthy, Safe & Sustainable Community

Ahora

Animals Are Sentient Beings, Inc.

Terra Advocati

Concerned Citizens of Cook County (Georgia)

Malach Consulting

Turtle Island Restoration Network

Uranium Watch

The Community In-Power and Development Association Inc.

Debra Campbell

People Against Neighborhood Industrial Contamination (PANIC)

South Bronx Unite

Coal River Mountain Watch

Community In-Power Development Association

Equity Legal Services

Renewal of Life Trust

Weber Sustainability Consulting

Lynn Canal Conservation

Tucson Audubon Society

North American Climate, Conservation and Environment(NACCE)

Laguna-Acoma Coalition for a Safe Environment

Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma

Environmental Justice Action Hub - EJ Action Hub

Friends of Buckingham

350 Wisconsin

To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Kunaan Smyth and I’m writing on behalf of Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, SILA. We focus on creating healthy spaces for Iñupiat wherever they are mentally, physically, and spiritually. We strive to make connections between people, culture, and land. Our members have taken a special interest in anything to do with oil extraction in Alaska, especially areas that impact Iñupiat communities.

The reason I am writing this letter is to ask you to have 24 hour, 7 day a week telephonic commenting available for the Coastal Plains EIS commenting period and any other commenting period during the Covid pandemic. This is because several people had commented that they had issues being included in the process both in the in-person pre-Covid meetings and during the virtual hearings. Some of the issues that led to this during the last commenting period include, but are not limited to, a lack of informing the community in a timely manner that is effective, technological issues, and decisions as to which communities should have hearings. We at SILA would like to help solve some of these issues and have come up with an idea.

Having a 24/7 comment phone number will help protect the smaller Alaskan communities during the covid pandemic, allow people who are working any shift to participate, and open the conversation to all those who will be impacted by these decisions. This will also prevent technological issues that may happen during zoom. If you have fluent speakers for Iñupiat and Gwich’in communities available during certain times, you can advertise this in the same spaces that you announce a comment phone number. We ask that you take this idea under serious consideration.

Sincerely,

Kunaan Smyth, SILA Communications Director