Finally, after long months of plainly illegal delay, the Department of the Interior announced that the polar bear will be listed as a species due protection under the Endangered Species Act.
Will the Bush Administration now reconsider its lease of oil and gas drilling rights in the polar bear’s habitat in Chukchi Sea? That lease could surely have been blocked under the Endangered Species Act. Don’t hold your breath.
Dirk Kempthorne, the Secretary of the Interior, issued the following statement:
“While the legal standards under the ESA 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. Any real solution requires action by all major economies for it to be effective. That is why I am taking administrative and regulatory action to make certain the ESA isn’t abused to make global warming policies.”
In other words, although the Bush Administration was finally forced to obey the law and list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, the Bush White House has no intention of following the law and providing the polar bear with any of the protections it is now legally due.
For the polar bear to be listed under the Endangered Species Act because of threats created by global warming requires that the United States federal government finally act to stop global climate change to the extent possible and prevent as much sea ice from melting as it can. Dirk Kempthorne doesn’t understand that, and that’s a very important reason why America needs to elect a progressive President in 2008 – a genuine environmentalist as only a progressive can be.
(Source: Department of the Interior, May 14, 2008)
