The Willow Arctic oil drilling project—the latest battle in a long fight over Alaska's North Slope

For more than six decades, Alaska's North Slope has been a focus of intense controversy over oil development and wilderness protection, with no end in sight. Willow field, a 600-million-barrel, US$8 billion oil project recently approved by the Biden administration—to the outrage of environmental and climate activists—is the latest chapter in that long saga.