Environmentalists counting on Congress for drill ban

Opponents of oil drilling in an Alaskan wildlife refuge are calling on the new Democratic Congress to make a drilling ban permanent.

Legislation introduced in the House of Representatives yesterday would make the oil-rich 1.2 million-acre (490,000 hectares) coastal strip of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge a permanently protected wilderness and end repeated efforts to open the area east of the Prudhoe oil field to energy companies.