WASHINGTON A bipartisan group of former Interior Department officials is urging members of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to oppose the latest Republican-led effort to open a portion of a pristine Alaska wildlife refuge to oil and gas development.

Some places are just too special to drill, officials from the Nixon, George W. Bush, Clinton and Obama administrations wrote in a Tuesday letter to the panel.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who chairs the committee, introduced legislation last week that would require that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke approve at least two lease sales for drilling each no less than 400,000 acres in the 1.5 million-acre coastal plain area of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR).

Murkowski said the Congressional Budget Office estimates the move would bring in slightly more than $1 billion in federal revenue over the next decade, although that figure has been widely disputed.

The signees said they are deeply concerned at the prospect of oil development on the coastal plain, also known as the 1002 Area. Drilling, they said, risks significant damage to this national, cultural and ecological treasure, and it is currently a needless risk, as a glut of supply and the low price of oil make economic arguments for risking this incredible resource ring hollow.

The group describes the refuge, which covers more than 19 million acres in northeastern Alaska, as among the worlds most important ecological resources. The region is home to polar bears, moose and hundreds of species of migratory birds, and serves as the calving ground for Porcupine caribou.