Few are willing to publicly pronounce it dead. But the proposal to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge doesn't look good. Oil company, state monitors try to keep up with aging pipelines. Group's 'conduct and composition' concern two Democrats. Two senior Democratic congressmen have sent a list of questions to Andrew Lundquist, the top aide for Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force, asking him about how private interests are influencing the group and why meetings are secret.
Issue ads try to swing votes on drilling in refuge.
Phillips Alaska Inc. has diked one section of a spill area in the Kuparuk oil field and is preparing to flush the ground with warm water to lift salt and crude oil off the tundra, state officials said. Crude and saltwater soak tundra in year's biggest spill. You're in a small airplane buzzing through the vast Arctic emptiness. Clouds hang over the snow-crusted tundra. Sea ice stretches out of sight to the north.