The Biden administration is seeking comment on potentially adding to areas in the western arctic that are protected from oil and gas development, according to the Bureau of Land Management.
The administration is seeking a 60-day comment period during which the BLM will also consult with tribal communities in the area of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, according to The Hill. This has been a historically protected area, restricted from development.
BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning said the area is "critical" to caribou movement and herd health. It is also critical to other wildlife like migratory birds and native plants.
"We want to hear from the public to ensure we are managing the western Arctic's significant resource values in the right ways and right places," Stone-Manning said in a statement.
The move received widespread praise from environmental advocates, including Athan Manuel, director of the Sierra Club's Lands Protection Program.
"If enacted, these proposed protections would be another historic move towards long-term preservation of American's Artic," Manuel said.
About 13 million acres of land are already considered protected areas in the reserve. ConocoPhilips previously sued to block the ban on drilling, claiming the proposal violates federal law, Bloomberg reported.
Oil industry advocates that hold leases in the reserve say the BLM regulation unlawfully strangles development in territory set aside as a source of energy for the Navy a century ago.
ConocoPhillips is joined by Alaska Attorney General Treg Taylor, a Republican who opposes the new ruling, claiming it "dramatically and fundamentally changes" how the reserve is managed, according to Politico's E&E News.
Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, told CBS News' "Face the Nation" in April that the administration's actions blocking natural resource development in Alaska, including the rejection of a road project that would have opened up millions of acres of wilderness to oil drilling and mineral mining, is equal to "national security suicide."
"It's lawless," Sullivan said. President Joe Biden "doesn't have the authority to do it, and I could go into all the laws that support me on that. It's, as I say, national security suicide."
Biden won't sanction Iranian oil and gas, said Sullivan, "but he has no problem sanctioning Alaska."