ConocoPhillips Wants To Install Chilling Devices in the Arctic To Get More Oil

President Biden approved an enormous fossil fuel development in the Alaskan Arctic on Monday.

ConocoPhillips plans to install “chillers” in the ground alongside its extractive infrastructure to manage permafrost melt and keep drill rigs upright.

Despite a second, court-mandated environmental review, the ground-cooling tech made it into the finalized Biden-version of the plan without raising too many alarm bells.

As the Arctic heats up and permafrost melts, formerly sturdy ground can become softer, boggier, and less able to support infrastructure like roads and buildings or, say, oil rigs.

The extraordinarily sensitive nature of Arctic tundra ecosystems is one of the key reasons many environmentalists opposed the Willow Project in the first place.