CONGRESS MAY TAP OIL IN REFUGE.(MAIN)

Byline: TOM KENWORTHY Washington Post

WASHINGTON For more than a decade, environmental groups have staved off attempts to get congressional approval for oil and gas drilling in the Alaska National Wildlife Refuge, a 19 million-acre tract of tundra that provides important habitat for migrating caribou, polar bears and abundant other wildlife.

But for conservationists who like to call the refuge ``America's Serengeti,'' time may be running out. Budget plans in both the House and Senate call for drilling in a corner of the refuge known as the coastal plain along the Beaufort Sea, not far from the Prudhoe Bay oilfield that feeds the Trans-Alaska …