Polar bears vie with oil for US government focus

The U.S. government will soon decide whether polar bears are in danger because global warming is melting their icy habitat. But last week, the government offered some of that habitat as a place to drill for oil.

Strangely enough, both those decisions are the province of the Interior Department.
The department’s Fish and Wildlife Service is supposed to announce a decision by Wednesday whether polar bears should be listed as endangered or threatened under the Endangered Species Act. A department spokesman said that deadline would probably pass with no decision.

Last week, the department’s Minerals Management Service announced its plan to offer oil and gas exploration rights in February to 29.7 million acres (12.02 million hectares) in the remote Chukchi Sea off the northwest Alaskan coast.

There are about 16,000 polar bears in the region and environmentalists, especially those who pushed for the polar bear habitat to be protected, were outraged.

“The polar bear’s existence is increasingly threatened by the impact of climate change-induced loss of sea ice,” Margaret Williams of the World Wildlife Fund said in a statement. “The chances for the continued survival of this icon of the Arctic will be greatly diminished if its remaining critical habitat is turned into a vast oil and gas field.”

Reuters