WASHINGTON — President Obama’s move to open up vast, untouched Arctic waters to oil and gas drilling as he pursues an ambitious plan to fight climate change illustrates the inherent tensions in his environmental and energy agenda.

As the first president to seriously tackle climate change, Mr. Obama has proposed aggressive new rules to cut planet-warming carbon emissions from the nation’s power plants and is pushing for a major global warming accord. He has also overseen an extraordinary boom in domestic energy production that has made the United States the world’s leading oil producer.

The result, until now, has been an uneasy balance between Mr. Obama’s leadership on climate change and his efforts to ensure that the United States benefits from its newfound oil and gas wealth. But in this latest decision, some oil companies and top energy experts agree with environmentalists that drilling in the Arctic is dangerous enough to upset the balance and put Mr. Obama’s environmental legacy at risk.