Republicans said they were seeking ways to quickly reverse the restrictions in the state’s North Slope region.

President Joe Biden's administration on Thursday moved to put more of Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge off limits to oil and gas development, in a last-minute bid to complicate President-elect Donald Trump's efforts to boost drilling in the area.

The Biden administration is setting in motion actions that could prevent drilling in more “special areas” of Alaska’s north slope — if the incoming Trump administration does not shelve it. The Interior Department issued a memo Thursday proposing a new protected area and prosing to expand existing protected areas.