The U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Dirk Kempthorne, recently made an announcement on May 14th, 2008 which admitted that “loss of sea ice threatens and will likely continue to threaten polar bear habitat.” At first glance, this would seem like a victory for environmentalists who have longed for the U.S. under the Bush administration to recognize the negative effects of global climate change.
Bush Administration Restricts Action
However, despite the fact that the Department just admitted that the habitats of polar bears are melting away, Kempthorne continued to say that “While the legal standards under the ESA (Endangered Species Act) compel me to list the polar bear as threatened, I want to make clear that this listing will not stop global climate change or prevent any sea ice from melting… That is why I am taking administrative and regulatory action to make certain the ESA isn’t abused to make global warming policies.”
Abused is the word that he chose. The Department of the Interior is afraid that someone might “abuse” their findings by actually doing something to stop the polar bears from going extinct.
New Rule Written to Permit Drilling in Polar Bear’s Habitat
Kempthorne even developed a new rule, based upon section 4(d) within the ESA, which allows for the polar bear to be considered threatened while still allowing the U.S. to destroy more of its natural habitat in order to drill for oil.
Though this half-hearted response to the crisis surrounding the polar bears may seem confusing at first, it is not without a source. The Department of the Interior published on their website a quote from President Bush in April, stating “The Clean Air Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act were never meant to regulate global climate change.”
President Bush has called for oil exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for a long time now, and it seems that if an ESA rule protecting threatened species gets in his way, his solution is to simply have a new rule developed.
Will the New Rule Survive 2009?
With a Presidential election on the horizon, it can be argued that the Bush administration is attempting to “cover its bases” before leaving office.
This attempt to write a new rule protecting oil exploration in Alaska despite the threatened status of the polar bears could be seen as an attempt to make it harder to write new environmentally friendly rules if a Democrat is elected to the Presidency.
With many other issues in the national spotlight right now, polar bears may take a backseat to the war in Iraq, health care and rising gas costs. Whether polar bears can afford to wait for their needs to be heard in Washington will be a question that might be tragically answered before it is even pondered.
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