President Joe Biden climate change
President Joe Biden delivers remarks on his proposed budget for fiscal year 2024, Thursday, March 9, 2023, at the Finishing Trades Institute in Philadelphia. (Credit: White House Photo by Hannah Foslien)

Op-ed: Biden’s Arctic drilling go-ahead illustrates the limits of democratic problem solving

President Biden continues to deploy conventional tactics against the highly unconventional threat of climate change.

Howls of outrage met the Biden administration decision to allow Arctic oil drilling at the same time it pursues the most climate-friendly agenda of any American president. How can this conflict in priorities be explained?


ConocoPhillips received permission to exploit the largest proposed oil project on U.S. federal land, the Alaska Willow project. At the same time, the president reduced the size of the project from five drilling sites to three, got the petroleum company to agree to return to the government leases covering about 68,000 acres in the drilling area and said new protections for a nearby coastal wetland are coming.

The most sympathetic and telling explanation for this seeming contradiction is that the president drew on tools that have worked in his long political career. But his instinct toward finding the middle ground says as much about the American public, including the fiercest climate advocates, as it says about him. All of us have shirked responsibility on the existential issue that is climate change and that is reflected in our politicians and their decisions. As Walt Kelly said, “we have met the enemy and they are us.”

President Biden was pushed and pulled in multiple directions with a great deal at stake, arguably including his own political viability. His expressed long-term objective is to stop the emission of greenhouse gasses. But getting reelected to be able to do so is a goal of a different nature. Showing sensitivity to the immediate welfare of the local Native Alaska population is still another, as is not jeopardizing the re-election of Alaska’s Democratic representative.

To balance these diverse set of goals, he found compromise. He endorsed drilling, even as his administration is investing massive amounts into the development of a fossil-fuel-free economy. If this were any conventional policy challenge, his judgment would be hailed as masterful. But there’s nothing conventional about this crisis.

Compromise on climate change 

For the most part, Americans value the long tradition of compromise. It’s how we move forward. It’s how you build the mass support that eventually resolves vexing problems. Fortunately, many of the challenges that life poses are susceptible to incremental solutions that slowly move society toward progress.

In more rare cases, the imperative of change is less pliable and more urgent. The unforgiving physics of climate change is in that category. Greenhouse gas loading of the atmosphere is a non-negotiable reality.

President Biden has excellent science advisors. I’m confident he has been briefed on how greenhouse gases enter and linger in the atmosphere. He surely understands that no amount of greenhouse gas discharge is acceptable at this stage. But he continues to deploy conventional tactics against this unconventional threat, likely because that is pretty much all he has – because the American public isn’t ready to face the truth and this tool has worked for him in the past.

The science of climate is non-negotiable

This is an American dilemma, the collision of our style of problem solving and problem avoidance. It’s not the first time an unstoppable force has met an immovable object to illustrate the limits of democratic problem solving. Take a look at the tortured 19th century process where good intentions tried to hold the union together as it struggled with the moral and ethical rot of slavery.

There, also, politicians sought repeatedly to compromise rather than directly confront the impossible challenge of ending slavery. As new states and territories entered the union, some were designated slaves and others free, accepting the evil to avoid overt conflict. None of this did more than defer the inevitable, but it helped leaders avoid confronting uncomfortable truths about slavery. Slavery happened in the South but its products underpinned many a comfortable life in the North.

Cheap cotton went North to mill towns to support a good life. It made the fortunes of families like the Lowells, who poured their proceeds into making Harvard, Harvard. The mills provided entry-level jobs for new immigrants trying to gain a foothold in the United States.

Even among those who considered it an evil, slavery was quietly intertwined into their lives.

But, what does this have to do with climate change?

Just like the abolitionists of New England, we benefit from the evil we condemn. Quite a lot of us live an unimaginably rich and freeing life, largely because of carbon. The freedom of using it, even wasting it, defines who we are.

We rarely think twice about the greater implications of these constant consumptions. To do so would slow us down, redirect us from our life’s work, further impinge on our limited time and add unwanted complications to our lives.

To move forward would require asking uncomfortable questions about our own complicity rather than simply attacking fossil fuel providers. And then to take actions which might, in some ways, upend our lives. That this is a well-meaning complicity makes it all the harder to come clean.

So we — and the leaders acting on our behalf — make compromises hoping the science of climate is negotiable, even as we know it is not.

Ruth Greenspan Bell is a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.

log jam carbon climate
Photo by david lindahl on Unsplash

A logjam as big as Manhattan is battling climate change -- for now

A pileup of ancient logs nearly as big as Manhattan is trapping millions of tons of carbon in northern Canada – and the warming climate may lead to its releasing much of that stored material into the atmosphere.
Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.

‘Unpredictability is our biggest problem’: Texas farmers experiment with ancient farming styles

A study is under way in the water-scarce region to see if commodity farmers can use the regenerative technique of cover cropping as a way to adapt to rapidly changing weather conditions.

offshore wind energy climate
Photo by Carl Raw on Unsplash

How engineers make sure giant floating wind turbines don't drift away

Floating wind turbines the size of skyscrapers are being built where there can’t be construction directly on the seafloor. It’s a massive technical challenge.

iraq energy climate fossil fuels
Image by David Mark from Pixabay

Iraq faces steep challenge to wean economy off oil dependency

Oil sales make up 90 percent of Iraq’s budget revenue as it recovers from years of devastating conflicts and political upheaval, leaving it overly reliant on the sector.
red knot delaware biodiversity

Threatened red knots land along Delaware Bay

The annual red knot arrival is underway as federal regulators have unveiled a plan to protect nearly 700,000 acres in New Jersey, Delaware, and 11 other states.
coffee beans el nino weather climate
Photo by Alin Luna on Unsplash

How an El Niño could impact your coffee

The weather changes triggered by a global El Niño event can be detrimental to the crops that supply the world’s coffee.

One pastor's mission to prepare his community for climate change

Rev. Gerald Godette is a pastor and scientist. So he’s in a unique position to talk to people of faith about sea level rise, extreme weather, and other climate change impacts.

From our Newsroom
halliburton fracking

How the “Halliburton Loophole” lets fracking companies pollute water with no oversight

Fracking companies used 282 million pounds of hazardous chemicals that should have been regulated by the Safe Drinking Water Act from 2014 to 2021.

oil and gas wells pollution

What happens if the largest owner of oil and gas wells in the US goes bankrupt?

Diversified Energy’s liabilities exceed its assets, according to a new report, sparking concerns about whether taxpayers will wind up paying to plug its 70,000 wells.

Paul Ehrlich

Paul Ehrlich: A journey through science and politics

In his new book, the famous scientist reflects on an unparalleled career on our fascinating, ever-changing planet.

oil and gas california environmental justice

Will California’s new oil and gas laws protect people from toxic pollution?

California will soon have the largest oil drilling setbacks in the U.S. Experts say other states can learn from this move.

popular stories 2022

Our 5 most popular reads from 2022

A corpse, woodworking dangers, plastic titans ... revisit the stories that stuck with our readers this past year.

Stay informed: sign up for The Daily Climate newsletter
Top news on climate impacts, solutions, politics, drivers. Delivered to your inbox week days.