"Threatened' polar bears will get no protection from global warming or oil drilling

(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.)

Polar bears vs. Bush: the lawsuit

News update: Alaska natives and environmental groups filed suit last week to block the Interior Dept.’s Feb. 6 sale of oil and gas leases in 30 million acres of the Chukchi Sea, home to 10% of the world’s remaining polar bears. The bears are already threatened by the rapidly melting Arctic ice they use as a base for finding food. Several weeks ago the administration announced the delay of a decision about endangered-species status for the bears until after the oil lease sale. Then administration officials told a House hearing that oil exploration would not threaten the bears. This despite an earlier environmental impact study by scientists in their own department that said there’s a 33-51% chance of a major oil spill. “Polar bears do not do well with oil,” according Steven Armstrup of the U.S. Geological Survey. “Most likely it would be fatal.” (Sources: E&E Daily, E&E News PM, AP) (Photo courtesy of Flickr and photographer mape_s.)

Poll: 62% see warming as threat, but few take action
A poll of 11,000 Americans revealed that 62% of adults and 79% of children see global warming as a very serious problem. (23% of the adults were unsure.) And 57% of the adults and 74% of the kids said warming is a threat to all life on the planet. (27% of the adults were unsure, an option the kids apparently didn’t have.) Many support recycling, driving fuel-efficient cars and using less energy at home, but few are doing much about it. Democrats were 3 times as likely to see global warming as a danger, but only a little more likely to take action. The survey was conducted by George Mason University. Lead author Edward Maibach said there is growing fear about the topic but not enough information on what people can do. (Source: USA Today)

FutureGen out, smaller coal projects in – but when?
That didn’t last long. The feds pulled the plug last week on a $1.8 billion carbon-sequestration project, after Mattoon, Ill. was announced as the site in December. The huge demonstration project, planned since 2003, was to test whether carbon can be successfully captured and stored underground (forever) so that coal can be burned without emitting greenhouse gases. But what originally was to cost $1 billion grew to almost double that amount over the past 5 years.
The government says it will instead provide (less) money to create a much smaller pilot project and help new or existing coal plants add capture and sequestration. (Sources: PlanetArk, E&E PM)

UN says global warming could cost up to $20 trillion
Putting the world on a clean-energy trajectory and helping poor countries adapt to global warming could cost the world $15 trillion to $20 trillion over the next 20-25 years, a new UN report says. Now, the energy sector spends about $300 billion a year on new plants and other investment. (I’m struggling with the math here – too many zeroes.) The report is in preparation for a 2-day UN debate in mid-February on climate policy and adaptation. (Source: AP)

Etc.: Whole Foods trashes plastic bags … U.S. wind power up 45% in 2007 … Florida starts Green Lodging certification … Japan eyes network of offshore wind farms … high gas prices spur Americans to buy fuel-efficient cars … global carbon trade up 80% last year … ancient plants and moss exposed after 1,600 years in Arctic melt.