(KXNET) — The Biden Administration has approved a massive oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope, causing an uproar from environmentalists.

The $8 billion Willow Project is the largest proposed oil drilling plan on public land in history.

If everything goes through, it would produce up to 577 million barrels of oil over the next 30 years.

Alaska is the third most oil-resilient state, behind Wyoming and North Dakota.

When and if the project operates at full capacity, experts say it could lower global oil prices by 20 cents a barrel, causing an economic drop for oil ripe communities like our state’s.

Supporters of Willow say this project will create an economic lifeline for Indigenous communities and lessen our country’s reliance on foreign oil.

But activists say this project goes against President Joe Biden’s promises that there would be no new drilling on federal lands and waters.

Environmentalists say the project’s carbon pollution release would be equivalent to putting two million gas-powered cars on U.S. roadways.

The project could contain more than 200 oil wells, several new pipelines, a central processing plant, an airport, and a gravel mine.

Lawsuits have been filed against the project and the Biden Administration, which is pending in federal court and could end up delaying plans.