 Just a quick question about how you feel about drilling in the Arctic Refuge. Totally opposed to it. Completely totally opposed to it. And I think I'm the only one, maybe not the only one, the only one running who's been up in the Arctic Circle. I've been, remember the great oil spill that occurred, and I watched when I went up there and I went up in a helicopter up in the North Slope and saw what was going on and saw what was happening as the glaciers began to melt and how the caribou and everything, I mean there's a lot going on up there. And it's a real gigantic problem. And by the way, no more drilling on federal lands, period, period, period, period. But the Arctic Circle is a disaster to do that, a big disaster in my view. That's what Joe Biden said about drilling in the Arctic on the campaign trail. He was unequivocal in his condemnation saying he was completely and totally opposed to it. But as presidents, here's what he now thinks about drilling in the Arctic as Kenny Stantel of Common Dreams explains, U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday greenlighted a massive oil drilling project on federal land in Alaska eliciting outrage from climate advocates who say the administration's accompanying restrictions on oil and gas leasing in the region cannot make up for the destruction set to be unleashed by the approved Willow Project. Progressives sought for months to dissuade Biden from approving Kanako Phillips' $8 billion Willow Project noting that it could enable the production of more than 600 million barrels of crude oil over 30 years. If all of that oil is burned, roughly 280 million metric tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide emissions will be spewed into the atmosphere at a time when United Nations Secretary General Antonio Gutierrez warns that the planet is reaching a point of no return. So let's be very clear here. This is a direct betrayal of his campaign promise. And environmental groups were justifiably pissed off because of this 180. The People vs. Fossil Fields condemned the news on Twitter saying, POTUS has the power to reject all new fossil fuel projects that would ensure the survival of our communities and planet. Instead, he is choosing to disregard frontline communities and expand fossil fuel infrastructure that will drive us further into climate chaos. Hashtag stop Willow. The Sunrise Movement tweeted out today, President Biden is set to approve the Willow Project, the single largest oil extraction project ever proposed on federal lands. If he does, he will be abandoning millions of young people in favor of the fossil fuel industry. POTUS, it's not too late to stand with us. And last but certainly not least, climate justice lines tweeted out the phone number to the Biden administration. It's 202-456-1111. And you can also call the Interior Department 202-208-1923 and let them know that you oppose this and you can also politely encourage them to not go ahead with the Willow Project. Now, the Biden administration was anticipating major blowback for lying, but he proposed a bit of a pseudo-compromise to, I guess, make us feel better about him accelerating the demise of our entire planet for private profits. But as you might expect, it's a dog shit compromise. In what The New York Times described as a bid to temper criticism over the Willow decision and, as one administration official put it, to form a firewall to limit future fossil fuel development in the region, Biden announced restrictions on offshore oil lease sales in the Arctic Ocean and across Alaska's North Slope, while the U.S. Department of Interior said it would issue new rules to block oil and gas leasing in more than 13 million of the 23 million acres that formed the National Petroleum Reserve, Alaska, where the Willow Project is located. But given the overwhelming scientific evidence and warnings from even the relatively conservative International Energy Agency that new fossil fuel projects are incompatible with averting the worst consequences of the planetary emergency, climate justice campaigners rejected the president's attempt to soften the blow of his Willow approval by announcing new protections for areas surrounding the extraction site. Quote, it's insulting that Biden thinks this will change our minds about the Willow Project. Kristen Monsell, the senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. Quote, Biden approved Willow knowing full well that it'll cause massive and irreversible destruction, which is appalling, said Monsell. People in wildlife will suffer and extracting and burning more fossil fuel will warm the climate even faster. Biden has no excuse for letting this project go forward in any form. New Arctic drilling makes no sense and will fight hard to keep Kanoko Phillips from breaking ground. And I wholeheartedly agree with Monsell here. It is genuinely insulting that he think we're naive enough to believe anything he says after he just showed young people, many of which probably voted for him for the very first time, that his word is dog shit. It means nothing. Now, the rationale by the administration is that this was inevitable, since legally they don't believe that they have the authority to deny the drilling permits to Kanoko Phillips. So a court is going to grant them access to destroy our planet for private profit anyway, so why stand in the way? In other words, they're basically arguing that they're not liars per se, they're just cowards who refuse to fight. Wow, so compelling. Thank you, Mr. President. I understand your reasoning now. Now, it's not just that the Willow Project is going to lead to more greenhouse gas emissions, but as candidate Biden alluded to at the start of this video, it really is a disaster to drill in this region. He was right then and he's wrong now. The Department of Interior's environmental assessment raised substantial concerns about the threat that drilling poses in this region, not just to the planet, but to freshwater, as well as animals like whales, caribou and migratory birds. But this one company's profits is apparently more important than the planet and all of the wildlife that they'll be disrupting, so we have to let them drill in the region, drill it into oblivion. That's fine. So the next time that the Democratic Party lambasts young people for not turning out for Democrats in elections, remind them of stories like this. When I was finally old enough to vote, I excitedly cast my first vote for Barack Obama back in 2008, but I learned the hard way that politicians will literally say anything to get elected. Not only did Obama not end the wars, but he bragged about ramping up fossil fuel extractions, despite knowing the danger that anthropogenic climate change poses to our entire species. And now, unfortunately, many Zoomers who voted for Biden probably for the first time are experiencing the same disappointment that I felt when I was younger. We're locked into this system for the foreseeable future, and no administration is going to get us out of it. So that's where we're at, essentially. It feels like we're trapped. We know that continued fossil fuel extraction poses a danger to drinking water, wildlife and the totality of life on Earth. But our government has collectively decided for us that short-term profits for private companies are more important than the long-term habitability of the entire planet. And despite living in a democracy, it seems as if we have almost no say in the matter. So it's a bit of a doomer note, but we'll leave that there. There's really nothing left to say. Biden has broken another campaign promise, but anyone who's been paying attention shouldn't be surprised by this at all.