"What's the best way to drill for oil in a mostly untouched Alaskan tundra, home to migrating caribou, abundant waterfowl, and Native Alaskan hunting and fishing grounds? It depends on which federal agency you ask.

The Bureau of Land Management, the Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. EPA and the Fish and Wildlife Service are split on how to approve ConocoPhillips Co.'s bid to become the first oil producer in the 22.5-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve (NPR-A) in northwest Alaska.

How they resolve those differences could point to how -- and to what extent -- the nation taps into a reserve believed to hold upward of a billion barrels of crude."

Phil Taylor reports for Greenwire January 21, 2015. [2]