Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, won a decadeslong battle on Wednesday to open part of an Arctic wildlife reserve in her state to oil and gas drilling, but Democratic senators and conservationists vow the war has only begun.
The tax bill passed by Congress contains language pushed by Murkowski and supported by President Donald Trump to hold two lease sales in the 1.5-million-acre (600,000-hectare) "1002 area" on the northern coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Democrats and environmentalists deplore the prospect of development in ANWR, home to polar and grizzly bears, 200 species of birds, and where Gwich'in natives depend on migrating herds of porcupine caribou.