Many people, including me, were really surprised that the Biden administration recently agreed to develop a huge oil and gas drilling project.

Why would President Biden agree to a $8 billion project that could produce 600 million barrels of crude oil over 30 years?

The project, led by ConocoPhillips, will likely get in the way of reaching the president’s goals to lessen the harm produced by the climate crisis. If all of that oil is used, 280 million metric tons of carbon would be released into the atmosphere. That means that 9.2 million metric tons of carbon pollution, equal to adding nearly two million cars to the roads each year, would be added to the blanket of greenhouse gases that surrounds the world.

It was reported that the administration does not have the legal right to refuse to give ConocoPhillips permission to drill, because the company holds leases in the oil reserve.

At the same time, the president is restricting future drilling in the Arctic Ocean and across Alaska’s North Slope. The Interior Department said it would issue new rules to block oil and gas leases on more than 13 million of the 23 million acres that form the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.

The restrictions on oil leasing in Alaska and the Arctic are unlikely to reduce concerns about the Willow project. Climate activists said that they were pleased that the president plans to protect the Arctic but were angry that Mr. Biden would approve a project they term a “carbon bomb.”

Kristen Monsell, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental project, said “Protecting one area of the Arctic so you can destroy another doesn’t make sense, and it won’t help the people and wildlife who will be upended by the Willow project.”

The actions of the Biden administration on the Willow project put at risk reaching the administration’s goal of reducing U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 50% to 52% from 2005 levels by 2030.

It also puts in jeopardy the promise that the U.S. and all of the 197 nations that belong to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change made to each other that the world will not get warmer than 1.5 degrees centigrade (It is currently 1.1 degrees). In order to do that, the nations will need to achieve net zero emissions by at least 2050 if not earlier.

The clock is ticking, and the Biden Administration — with its decision on the Willow project — just made the goal tougher.

Maybe the administration’s thinking is that the nation needs a new source of oil and gas to get through the transition between now and the time when the world is powered by renewable energy. For instance, six automobile manufacturers say that they will only produce electric vehicles after 2035 and people can continue to drive gas-powered cars after that date. Gasoline will continue to be needed even after 2035, but by a reduced amount every year. Every year, the quantity of renewables that are used will increase and fossil fuels usage will decrease.

If that is their thinking, the Biden administration owes us an explanation and a road map that shows how the nation will transition away from fossil fuels. Any new plans for fossil fuel extraction needs to be put in the context of achieving a 50% to 52% reduction by 2030.

Otherwise, it is difficult to understand why they are allowing such extensive drilling in Alaska.

Rev. Richard Killmer is a retired Presbyterian minister living in Yarmouth.