Al Gore: ‘recklessly irresponsible’ for Biden to allow Alaska oil drilling project

Former vice-president says the Willow development will fatally undermine the effort to confront the climate crisis

Al Gore has warned it would be “recklessly irresponsible” for Joe Biden’s administration to allow an enormous, controversial oil drilling project to proceed in Alaska, amid growing alarm among Democrats and campaigners that the Willow development will fatally undermine the US’s effort to confront the climate crisis.

The vast, $6bn ConocoPhillips oil project, to be situated on the tundra of Alaska’s northern Arctic coast, is awaiting approval from the federal government that could arrive as soon as Friday. Gore, the former US vice-president and leading climate advocate, told the Guardian that the planned drilling would threaten local communities as well as the task of curbing dangerous global heating.