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Oil Politics Alleged in Polar Bear Decision
Washington - California Sen. Barbara Boxer accused the Bush administration Wednesday of delaying a decision on whether to list the polar bear as an endangered species so it could finish its oil lease sales in Alaska's Chukchi Sea, where one-fifth of the world's polar bears live.
"The administration went ahead and accepted bids, even though oil and gas activities may disturb polar bears making a den, and even though an oil spill could pose big risks to the polar bear population," said Boxer, a Democrat who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
The Interior Department has been under fire from environmentalists and lawmakers for missing a deadline under federal law to decide whether to list the polar bear as endangered.
The polar bear is the first species being considered for a listing as endangered because of global warming. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey predict that two-thirds of the world's polar bears could be extinct by 2050 as the Arctic sea ice melts.
Boxer called Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to testify at a hearing on the polar bear listing decision, but he notified her Tuesday that he would not appear as a witness.
In a letter released Wednesday, Kempthorne said he could not testify because his agency is in litigation with environmental groups over the polar bear decision. Kempthorne, a former Idaho Republican senator who once served on the committee, pledged to come back to discuss the decision after it is announced.
Boxer noted that Cabinet secretaries often testify before Congress while their agencies are in litigation. She called Kempthorne's absence "a slap at this committee and a slap at the American people who care about this."
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service first proposed listing the polar bear as a threatened species in January 2007. The agency is required under federal law to make a determination within a year, but Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall announced on Jan. 7 of this year that he would delay a decision by up to a month to study new government data on polar bears and sea ice trends.
Environmentalists saw an ulterior motive: The Interior Department's Minerals Management Service was holding a Feb. 6 oil lease sale in Anchorage for a 46,000-square-mile area of the Chukchi Sea along Alaska's northwest coast. The lease sale brought in $2.6 billion, with Shell and ConocoPhillips staking the biggest claims.
In his letter, Kempthorne denied that the lease sale played any role in delaying the agency's decision on the polar bear. He said Fish and Wildlife Service scientists had concluded that offshore drilling would not pose a significant risk to the polar bear population in the area.
However, several witnesses at Boxer's hearing Wednesday disputed Kempthorne's statement.
Douglas Inkley, a wildlife biologist with the National Wildlife Federation, said the Minerals Management Service's environmental impact statement calculated a 33 to 51 percent chance of a major oil spill from new offshore drilling, which it concluded would have a significant impact on polar bears.
"Obviously, they have a very thick fur, and if it becomes soiled by oil, they immediately lose the ability to insulate. As a result, they can go hypothermic and die," Inkley said.
He said polar bears also can be killed by ingesting small amounts of oil.
Republicans on the committee warned that listing the polar bear as endangered could have serious economic implications. Sen. John Barrasso, R-Wyo., said it could force the Fish and Wildlife Service to weigh in on every new power plant or highway project if the emissions might affect the polar bear's chances of survival.
"Virtually every human activity that involved the release of carbon into the atmosphere would have to be regulated by the federal government," Barrasso said.
Boxer said it would be much more devastating for the government to do nothing as global warming pushes the polar bear and other species toward extinction.
"What if my friend found out that human life itself was threatened by climate change?" Boxer said. "Is he going to sit here and say, 'Well, this is terrible, we can't take any steps to protect my constituents' lives because it would hurt our economy?' "
Sen. John Warner, R-Va., a chief sponsor of a climate change bill that may get a Senate vote in June, said Kempthorne told him this week that he would have a decision before early summer. Warner said he urged the secretary to list the polar bear as endangered.
"I think we have an obligation toward this extraordinary animal," Warner said. "It's America's panda bear, and all Americans are in love with it."
© 2008 The San Francisco Chronicle
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17 Comments so far
Show AllWhat else is new? Besides, how much money can you make off of polar bears?
kathyodat
To the oil industry "extinct" is much better than "endangered."
Turn the Oil Industry into a PUBLIC UTILITY. Trying to UNDO the policies the Bush administration has left as a legacy within the EPA as well as other environmental and industrial policies will take a further spinning of tires, tax payer money to REVERSE the changes Bush made.....what a waste that the ideology is so divergent and creates yet another layer of ineffiecnecy when considering how we manage to "recover" from one administration to the next as a nation.
Multi...what makes you think its not. The oil industry (from then through the consumer) pays trillions toward the gov't in various taxes. We won't get off of oil because our gov't is addicted to oil revenue.
brontoburger - a correction to your comment -
The oil industry has been paying far less taxes as the corporations have addresses elsewhere, and in fact, they have been given subsidies ... of all things ... Our personal taxes on the oil and gas we use gets shoveled back to their source.
Cheney's Haliburton has moved to Dubai, and rumor has it that our Veep may move there. Likely he has a mega-house already.
It's a great life, ain't it?
peace ...
The Oil industry is the corporate and economic equivalent of corner crack & meth dealers. If our descendants are able to survive the legacy prior and our generation leave them due to our oil addiction, it would not be surprising if they use the same sort of language as we do about our predecessors' engagement with slavery.
I am sick to death of science being overturned, prostituted, misused, and ignored when inconvenient, by this administration. If we have one thing that separates us from naked apes, it is the ability to use the scientific process to find out what is true and what is not and to make rational decisions upon that basis.
Blind faith in the rightness of your cause is the epitome of ignorance and the hallmark of this criminal administration.
""What if my friend found out that human life itself was threatened by climate change?" Boxer said. "Is he going to sit here and say, 'Well, this is terrible, we can't take any steps to protect my constituents' lives because it would hurt our economy?' "
That is exactly what our governments are saying. Human life itself is threatened, in the third world and amongst the poor of our own countries. But the lawgivers and policy makers and corporative elite have nothing to fear except the ending of those systems which have made them powerful - systems which are killing the rest of us. Our deaths are necessary for their continued enjoyment of privilege.
Boycott Exxon --- go to another gas station...if we can hit the wallet of at least one of the hosts contributing to the Environmental disease perhaps then they'll listen. MONEY TALKS; BULLSHIT WALKS! And as long as oil industries keep filling their wallets...this is all BULLSHIT to them.
I cannot even comprehend, what goes on in the minds of those, who have absolutely no feelings, or consideration for anyone, or thing, other than their own personal interests, and gain.
At what point, does more than enough, become enough?
Since I can't find any other recent articles relating to global climate change (though, I did ask CD to run the article, which they have not done), I'm putting this link here. I'm sure some naysayers will be along to deny the evidence about human causes, so this may help dispel their obfuscation:
"Scientists have produced further compelling evidence showing that modern-day climate change is not caused by changes in the Sun's activity."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7327393.stm
Yet you want change but keep on electing the same lock step no guts to make change people.
Boycotting just Exxon isn't going to help, the oil companies are all the same and the only thing that they understand is MONEY, and that's the only way to hurt them
Drive less, get a more fuel efficient car, as long as we continue to waste so
much energy nothing will change, except the price of oil, it will continue to rise.
Damn polar bears keep playing politics, huh? Why don't they get a life and make their own damn ice. They may need a few coal burning plants to do it, I'm sure the industry will oblige.
Get a bike and use it.
Republicans on the committee warned that listing the polar bear as endangered could have serious economic implications.
The Repuks are like drunks who argue they must get drunk and beat their wives to be happy.
The economy is NOT dependent on carbon-spewing activities. Over the past eight years polls have shown that Americans are ready to shift to renewable energy sources. This shift will not damage the economy, but preserve it.
And the economy is preserved with the development of waste reduction methods which compensate for the loss of the current unnecessary production/consumption.
So the Interior Department can sell oil leases huh, that can't be blocked by Congress? The US Fish and Wildlife service fails to make a decision on the polar bears within a whole years' time, and then blow you off coming to the hearing. How about getting a court order. Why not suspend any or all oil leases granted, once the polar bear makes the endangered list.
Nanoo, you're right on. Since when does the Interior Department sell oil leases? And yes, how *about* getting a court order?
When are these bastards going to get it? Fossil fuels are obsolete! With biodiesel, and countless alternative energy sources ready to be implemented, why do they persist? If the energy industry wakes up, and focuses on alternatives, because that is what it needs to be doing, 80,000 jobs could be given back, rather than taken away, in a month's time. THE focus is our environment, nothing else. With this focus, all else falls into place -- and makes sense from absolute NONsense.
Barasso is worried that the polar bears on the endangered species list will hurt the economy? What does he think about what his pal Bernanke just did for his corporate banking bailout? Barasso? Good one!
This is beyond madness -- it is evil unleashed from its chains.
For starters: Bombard Barasso with letters -- and then, a good, solid, campaign to remove Barasso -- like Pombo, (remember him?) from office. Then bombard the San Francisco Chronicle. Then Boxer. Forget the What House. What's that? Oh, it used to be the White House.