"[P]eople acting in a group can accomplish things which no individual acting alone could even hope to bring about." - FDR

News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room

Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Polar Bear Decision Continues to Be Pushed Back

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is once again changing its tune on when it will announce plans to protect the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act. The agency has said it needs 10 more weeks to make the decision, according to the Associated Press.

The legal deadline for making the decision was Jan. 9. At that time, FWS, which is an agency within the Department of the Interior, said it would make its decision in early February. The latest announcement of delay indicates the decision may be pushed into early July at the earliest.

How could FWS's estimates be so off? In early January, FWS thought it only needed about another month to decide. But apparently, it needed another six months. That's quite the miscalculation.

Meanwhile, another agency within the Interior Department (the Minerals Management Service) has been working hastily to hand out permits to oil and gas companies to drill in areas in Alaska where the polar bear lives. Because FWS has yet to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, the companies do not legally have to take into consideration the effects of their operations on the bears' habitats.

Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity, a group which has filed suit to force the agency to make a decision, recognizes that FWS is callously delaying its decision to help out the oil and gas industry. According to the AP, "The request for more time, Siegel said, is probably a tactic to delay a decision until the Minerals Management Service can finish issuing offshore petroleum leases in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest shore, home to one of two polar bear populations in Alaska."

The Interior Department's Inspector General is investigating the delay.