Associated Press: Their response came within hours of U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s announcement Thursday that she planned to introduce a bill that would allow for use of a technology called directional drilling under the surface of the coastal plain — a relatively small but controversial area on the northern edge of the refuge. Directional drilling is common in Alaska’s oil fields and the idea to use it to siphon oil from the federal refuge isn’t new. During his recent Senate race, Mark Begich, a …