Approval of divisive Alaska oil project upheld in blow to US climate goals

Advocates warned of tragic consequences' should the project in a remote part of northern Alaska go ahead

A federal judge has upheld the Biden administration's approval of the Willow oil-drilling project in a remote part of northern Alaska in a move that environmental groups warned will have tragic consequences" for the Arctic.

On Thursday, the US district court judge Sharon Gleason rejected requests by a grassroots Inupiat group and environmentalists to undo the approval for the project in the federally designated National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.