Heating up: Efforts to determine whether Arctic offshore oil and gas activity threatens wildlife, particularly polar bears. US Rep. Edward J. Markey, chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, said that the US Fish and Wildlife Service missed a statutory deadline to decide if the polar bear should be added to the federal list of endangered species and announced a delay of at least one month. That would put the decision's announcement at least one day after another US Department of Interior agency, the Minerals Management Service, holds its Chukchi Sea lease sale on Feb. 6, Markey noted.
The Fish and Wildlife Service said on Jan. 7 that the decision would be delayed because it reopened and extended the comment period after US Geological Survey scientists provided new information in September about the Southern Bering Sea Polar Bear population and more data on sea ice trends and effects on the bears.
The committee will hold a hearing, "On Thin Ice: The Future of the Polar Bear," on Jan. 17 at 9:30 a.m. EST in Rayburn House Office Building Room 2175 and online at http://globalwarming.house.gov. Scheduled federal government witnesses include MMS Director Randall Luthi, Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall and Steven Amstrup, polar bear team leader at the USGS. They will be followed by a second panel of representatives from environmental and wildlife advocacy group, which the committee described as "experts on wildlife protection and oil drilling."
Why it matters: It's an obvious attempt to link Arctic offshore oil and gas activity to protection of the polar bear, possibly the single most popular environmental cause at this time. Leasing opponents were annoyed that additional federal lease sales off Alaska made it into the new MMS five-year Outer Continental Shelf plan. They clearly see this as a way to stop the leasing by getting the polar bear listed as an endangered species which would be threatened by hydrocarbon exploration and development.
Cooling off: Authorizing federal leasing within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. With the exception of occasional references by President George W. Bush and Alaska's congressional delegation, it's not even being mentioned. But it's also not completely off the stove. Continued high crude oil prices conceivably could renew interest in it, especially as a way to reduce economic pressure on consumers during an election year.
Contact Nick Snow at [email protected]
