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from the February 05, 2008 edition

Polar bear habitat at center of Alaska

drilling debate
One lawsuit aims to halt Wednesday's lease sales in the
Chukchi Sea.
Another would contest any listing of the polar bear as
'threatened.'
By Brad Knickerbocker | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

The political fight over offshore

oil and gas drilling in Alaska
intensifies this week.
Native Alaskans and
environmentalists have filed a
suit to prevent the federal
government's sale of drilling
leases in Alaska's Chukchi Sea.
The sales, set to begin
Wednesday, will allow drilling in
about 30 million acres, including
critical polar bear habitat,
environmentalists say. A
decision on whether to list polar On thin ice: Environmentalists say polar bears like these in northern
bears as "threatened" under the Alaska will be in danger if the US allows sales of new drilling leases
Endangered Species Act (ESA) is in the Chukchi Sea, set to begin Wednesday
expected this week as well.
The potential designation has left the Pacific Legal Foundation, a conservative public-
interest law firm, poised to challenge "any arbitrary, unjustified ESA listing" of the
iconic Arctic bear, setting up a likely court battle. Property-rights advocates and
business groups have been weighing in as well.
Researchers differing over the impact of climate change also affects the debate.
Hundreds of prominent scientists are urging Congress to pass legislation that would
curb global warming in order to protect wildlife, including polar bears. But other
experts say the data used to bolster the argument for ESA listing – in particular
computer modeling showing declines in polar bear populations because of climate
change and other factors – are based on "questionable assumptions."
All of this is uncharted territory for government-ordered species protection, which
typically is based on numbers dwindling toward extinction.
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Polar bear populations in fact may be larger than they were decades ago. By some
estimates there were as few as 5,000 polar bears in the 1950s when hunting for sport
and profit was far less regulated. Today, scientists believe there are 20,000 to 25,000
polar bears, though this is still about 60 percent below historic levels. And many
scientists say the loss of Arctic sea ice, which bears rely on for hunting and denning,
is accelerating to record levels due to global warming. As a result, US Geological
Survey scientists recently warned that projected changes in sea-ice conditions could
lead to the loss of about two-thirds of the world's polar bear population by
midcentury.
"Global warming is already causing serious damage and disruptions to wildlife and
ecosystems, and reliable projections call for significant additional damage and
disruptions," more than 600 scientists warned in a letter to members of Congress last
week.
Officials at the Interior Department's Minerals Management Service (MMS) say polar
bears already are protected under the 1972 Marine Mammal Protection Act.
"The bear currently receives regulatory protections even stricter than those available
under the Endangered Species Act," MMS Director Randall Luthi wrote in a posting on
his agency's website Friday. "No action is permitted that has more than a negligible
impact on the bears. Should the bear be listed as a threatened species, all the [oil
and gas] exploration and potential activities will only occur after meeting the
regulatory requirements of that listing."
Activists don't consider such assurances sufficient – not only regarding the eventual
impact of climate change linked to greenhouse gases and fossil fuels but also more
immediately with the dangers posed by oil and gas drilling in a marine environment.
"The MMS has admitted a substantial likelihood of oil spills in the Chukchi Sea," says
Kristen Miller, legislative director for Alaska Wilderness League, one of the groups
suing to stop new drilling there. "There is no proven method to clean up an oil spill in
the Arctic's broken sea ice, or even to reliably clean up a spill in open water."
The situation there puts the US Interior Department in the unusual position of
considering protection for a species while at the same time offering industrial activity
in that species' habitat.
Critics see this as a conflict of interest, especially because the decision on listing
polar bears under the ESA by the Interior Department's Fish & Wildlife Service was
delayed until the lease sale offering was to be made this week.
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a government
whistleblower organization, recently released internal government e-mails allegedly
showing how MMS officials ignored the urgings of agency scientists in pressing for
new oil and gas exploration in the Chukchi Sea.
"I do not see how the MMS can pass the 'red face' test ... when polar bear issues
which have been raised have been repeatedly and completely ignored by both [oil
company] Shell and MMS," former agency biologist James Wilder wrote in one e-mail
from January 2007.
Congress is also debating the issue.
In the Senate last week, John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts introduced legislation
prohibiting any new drilling activity in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas until the polar
bear is listed under the Endangered Species Act and critical habitat is designated.
"Before the government sells even more of their habitat off to big corporate interests,
we need to know the full impact of further drilling, and we need to know whether this
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would push us past the tipping point and devastate the polar bear habitat," Senator
Kerry said.