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“INTRODUCTION OF BILL TO PROTECT THE POLAR BEAR” mentioning the Department of Interior was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E46 on Jan. 17, 2008.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
INTRODUCTION OF BILL TO PROTECT THE POLAR BEAR
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HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY
of massachusetts
in the house of representatives
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Mr. MARKEY. Madam Speaker, I am introducing this bill today because the polar bear is in the crosshairs of global warming and the ill-
advised decisions of the Bush administration to proceed with an oil lease sale in a major polar bear habitat while delaying a decision to list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. This legislation would require that the Interior Department delay the oil drilling rights sale in Alaska's Chukchi Sea until it had made a decision on the listing of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, and had performed its responsibility of establishing ``critical habitat'' for the polar bear.
The Bush administration's own scientists project that the prospects for the polar bear's survival are bleak. Last year, Dr. Steven Amstrup, the Government's leading polar bear scientist, headed up a team of scientists charged with examining the impact of sea ice loss on polar bear populations. In a series of reports released last fall, Dr. Amstrup's team concluded that by mid-century, two-thirds of all the world's polar bears could disappear and that polar bears could be gone entirely from Alaska. Dr. Amstrup's team also noted that based on recent observations, this dire assessment could actually be conservative.
The actions of the Bush administration in the coming months could very well determine the fate of this iconic animal. The Interior Department is currently considering whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act as a result of the impact of global warming. While this decision has been nearly three years in the making, last week the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it was going to delay any decisions beyond its statutorily required deadline--that legal protection for the polar bear would be put on ice while its critical habitat continues to melt.
Meanwhile, the Interior Department is revving up its regulatory machine to allow new oil drilling in sensitive polar bear habitat. Earlier this month, the Minerals Management Service finalized its plan to move forward early next month with an oil and gas lease sale of nearly 30 million acres in the Chukchi Sea, an area that is essential habitat for polar bears in the United States.
The timing of these two decisions leaves the door open for the administration to give Big Oil the rights to this polar bear habitat the moment before the protections for the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act go into effect. Rushing to allow drilling in polar bear habitat before protecting the bear would be the epitome of this administration's backwards energy policy--a policy of drill first and ask questions later.
The decision to list the polar bear must be made on the best science. The Bush administration is still working out how it can solve global warming--with great delay--but has not yet made any declaration that we, or the polar bear, are in any danger. The Endangered Species Act does not call for a solution before a declaration, but rather a clear decision to be made on the biological status of a species at a specific time. The Bush administration are not going to solve global warming without first declaring it a problem, and they are not going to save the bear without first declaring it endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Robert Frost wrote about two roads diverging in the wood, and here we have the Bush administration looking down two roads with regard to the polar bear. Down one road lies the survival of the polar bear and the orderly consideration of oil drilling and global warming and common sense. Down the other road, too often traveled by this administration, lies regulatory lunacy and a blatant disregard for moral responsibility. I urge Secretary Kempthorne and his agency to choose the Bush administration's road less traveled and protect the polar bear, and the rest of us, from global warming.
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