The Trump administration announced on Thursday that it scheduled a Jan. 6 lease sale for companies to earn the chance to drill for oil and gas in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in a fast-tracked move intended to make it more difficult for President-elect Joe Biden to overturn it.

Biden has vowed to ban drilling in the Alaska refuge permanently, declaring himself “totally opposed” to disturbing the status quo in a long off-limits area that environmentalists consider to be one of the wildest places left on Earth.