Kempthorne Refuses to Testify on Delay of Polar Bear Protection

[Guest guest]

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne has declined an invitation to

explain to a U.S. Senate committee why no decision has been made on

additional protections for polar bears.

 

The deadline for a decision on listing polar bears as threatened under

the Endangered Species Act was Jan. 9. Conservation groups more than

three years ago petitioned to list polar bears as threatened because

their habitat, sea ice, is shrinking from global warming.

 

U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., chairwoman of the Senate Committee

on Environment and Public Works, on Thursday asked Kempthorne to

appear at an April hearing.

 

" It is time for the Interior Secretary to answer questions about the

administration's continued foot-dragging on the polar bear listing, "

she said in a statement.

 

Kempthorne on Friday declined in a letter sent by Lyle Laverty, an

assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks.

 

Laverty said Kempthorne on Monday had offered to testify before the

committee after a decision is made on polar bears, and to update Boxer

privately on progress toward a decision.

 

But Laverty reiterated that Kempthorne would seek a mutually agreeable

date for a hearing only after a decision is made.

 

Boxer on Friday called the offer for a phone briefing and a committee

appearance after the decision " wholly inadequate. "

 

" A hearing is urgently needed because the department is currently in

violation of the Endangered Species Act and is already the subject of

a lawsuit filed by conservation groups to compel a final decision, "

Boxer wrote to Kempthorne.

 

She said the department only proposed the polar bear for listing after

it was required to do so under a settlement agreement.

 

" As Secretary of Interior, you have a responsibility to the people to

answer questions before the oversight committee on this serious breach

of the Department's duty to follow the law and protect the magnificent

polar bear from the threat of extinction, " she wrote.

 

The original petition to list polar bears as threatened was submitted

in February 2005 by the Center for Biological Diversity. Conservation

groups have accused the Bush administration of delays for nearly that

long. A polar bear listing, they say, could delay plans for outer

continental shelf oil and natural gas leases in polar bear habitat off

Alaska's coast. They also say a polar bear recovery plan could trigger

agency review of new sources of greenhouse gases that contribute to

warming.

 

When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service missed the initial 90-day

review deadline, conservation groups sued in December 2005.

 

A year later, in December 2006, the agency published a 35-page

recommendation in the Federal Register that polar bears be listed.

Under the law, the agency then had until Jan. 9 to take public comment

and additional scientific study.

 

The U.S. Geological Survey added nine studies in September, including

one that concluded polar bears in Alaska could be wiped out by 2050

because of warming.

 

Summer sea ice in the Arctic last year shrank to about 1.65 million

square miles, the lowest level in 38 years of satellite record-

keeping and nearly 40 percent less ice than the long-term average

between 1979 and 2000. Some climate models have predicted the Arctic

will be free of summer sea ice by 2030.

 

Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall said in January his

agency had never made an endangered species decision connected to

climate change. He said it was more important to " do it right and have

it explained properly to the public " than to meet the deadline.

 

He also said he expected a decision by Kempthorne within a month.

 

In February, the Minerals Management Service, another arm of the

Interior Department, held an offshore oil and gas lease sale in the

Chukchi Sea, the habitat of one of two Alaska populations of polar bears.

 

The sale drew high bids of nearly $2.7 billion on 2.76 million acres

within an area about the size of Pennsylvania off Alaska's northwest

coast.

 

The Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense

Council and Greenpeace on March 10 sued the Interior Department,

asking a federal court in San Francisco to order administration

officials to make a polar bear decision.

 

In response to conservation groups, the Interior Department's

inspector general this month also announced a preliminary

investigation into why the department had not made its listing decision.

 

***Kempthorne may miss the hearing, but the Center for Biological

Diversity won't. Kassie Siegel, the director of our Climate, Air, and

Energy Program, will testify next Wednesday as an expert on polar

bears and global warming. Siegel authored the 2005 scientific petition

that put the polar bear on the road to federal protection.***