WASHINGTON A little more than two years after recommending that the coastal plain of Alaskas Arctic National Wildlife Refuge be designated as wilderness, a move that would have permanently protected the area from commercial development, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on Thursday voiced support for oil and gas drilling in this remote and fragile ecosystem.

Although a significant change in course, the move comes as little surprise. The Trump administrations 2018 fiscal year budget calls for allowing oil and gas production in the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain, also known as the 1002 area.

The administration says that development there would generate an estimated $1.8 billion over a decade a figure thats both highly disputed and only slightly more than the $1.6 billion President Donald Trump is looking to slash from the Interior Departments annual budget.

Greg Sheehan, principal deputy director of the FWS, was among a dozen panelists to testify during an hours-long, and at times tense, hearing Thursday of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. As expected, he went to bat for a Republican-led effort to open the refuge to energy exploration and extraction.

We support responsible development, in whatever form or fashion that best occurs in, he said. Sheehan added that if Congress passes legislation, the agency would use the best science, the best technologies and other strategies to ensure activities have the least amount of impact on the native wildlife species.