The windswept Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) in the northeastern corner of Alaska has been a subject of controversy for nearly two decades. Home to caribou, polar bears, and other wild animals, this nearly 20-million-acre refuge in the Arctic tundra is also believed to hold billions of barrels of oil. The federal government owns ANWR. Most of the territory has been designated as off-limits to oil drilling. But there is a continuing conflict over whether the government should allow oil drilling on a small northern portion of the refuge—about 8 percent of the total acreage—called the coastal plain.

Congress created the wildlife refuge in 1980 as part of the Alaska National Lands Act. It is one of more than five hundred wildlife refuges around the country.They all have as their chief...