(Photo of polar bear from Flickr and photographer Ironmanixs/Richard I Jzermans.)
Washington Report 3: Two Congressmen have introduced a “Polar Bear Seas Protection Act” and Earthjustice says it will pursue its three lawsuits in the wake of an Interior Department decision to list polar bears as “threatened” rather than “endangered “ Wednesday under the Endangered Species Act. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made it clear the designation did not mean the government needs to do anything to reduce global warming, which he acknowledged was responsible for the bears’ melting habitat, or stop oil and gas exploration in the area where they dwell. In fact, Interior held up making the designation for several months while it sold $2.66 billion in oil and gas leases in the Chuckchi Sea, including in prime bear habitat. So essentially the government will do nothing to protect the polar bears. The bill introduced by Reps. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) and Maurice Hinchey (D-N.Y.) asks for oil spill and cleanup standards, designation of critical habitat and a study of the impact of oil and gas drilling. If melting Arctic ice continues as predicted, two-thirds of polar bears will be gone by 2050, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. (Sources: E&E Daily, PlanetArk, The Daily Green.)
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