Anchorage, Alaska (AP) - The fight over oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is heating up over the possibility that a new management plan could put the refuge and its billions of barrels of crude off-limits for good.
 
At issue is the refuge's coastal plain. It's been a battleground for decades between environmentalists who don't want drilling and oil companies and Alaska officials that see a large, untapped resource.
 
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is updating its plan for the refuge and is now taking public testimony. A spokesman for the agency has said the agency might recommend the coastal plain be designated as wilderness.
 
A public hearing was scheduled Tuesday afternoon in Anchorage, with hearings planned for Fairbanks and Kaktovik this week and next.