Lisa Murkowski's head just exploded.
U.S. President Barack Obama will propose protecting 1.4 million acres (556,000 hectares) of the Arctic from oil and gas drilling, the Interior Department said on Sunday.
The administration plans to propose designating the area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as wilderness, the highest level of federal protection under which oil and gas drilling is banned, it said in a statement.
The Washington Post said earlier that the Interior Department would also place part of the Arctic Ocean off limits to drilling and is considering additional limits on oil and gas production in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska.
LINK (via: The Huffington Post)