Markey Threatens Polar Bear Protection Legislation Unless Bush Admin. Delays Oil Drilling Lease Sales
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Select Committee, 202-225-4081
Markey Threatens Polar Bear Protection Legislation Unless Bush Admin. Delays Oil Drilling Lease Sales
Bill Would Compel Interior Dept.’s Endangered Species, Habitat Decisions Occur Before Sale of Drilling Rights
To Read Testimony and See Photos from the Hearing, please CLICK HERE.
WASHINGTON (January 16, 2008) – In advance of tomorrow’s House Global Warming Committee hearing on the survival of the polar bear and the Bush administration’s proposed oil drilling rights sale in a polar bear habitat, Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) has prepared legislation that would compel the administration to protect the polar bear before it allows widespread oil drilling in Alaska.
The directors of the two Interior Department agencies--the Mineral Management Service and the Fish and Wildlife Service--responsible for the oil drilling and polar bear decisions, respectively, will appear before the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming tomorrow to answer questions on their agencies’ handling of these two decisions.
Earlier this month, the Fish and Wildlife Service announced it would miss the statutory deadline to reach a decision on listing the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) as a result of global warming, saying it would take up to a month more to reach the decision. That could put the listing decision after the sale of oil drilling rights in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, scheduled for February 6th. The Chukchi Sea is a sensitive polar bear habitat.
The legislation proposed by Chairman Markey would require that the Interior Department delay the oil drilling rights sale in the Chuckchi Sea until it had made a decision on the polar bear, and had performed its statutory responsibility of establishing a “critical habitat” for the polar bear.
In the most thorough study to date, an Interior Department scientist, who will appear before the Select Committee tomorrow, determined that under current trends, disappearing sea ice would result in a two-thirds drop in the world population of polar bears resulting in the disappearance of polar bears from Alaska by 2050. One of the population centers considered under the “greatest” threat is the Chuckchi Sea habitat, according to the study.
WHAT: “On Thin Ice: The Future of the Polar Bear,” Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming hearing
WHERE: 2175 Rayburn House Office Building and on the web at globalwarming.house.gov
WHEN: 9:30 AM, Thursday, January 17, 2008
WHO:
PANEL I
Mr. Dale Hall
Director
Fish and Wildlife Service
Mr. Randall Luthi
Director
Minerals Management Service
Dr. Steven Amstrup
Polar Bear Team Leader
U.S. Geological Survey
PANEL II
Ms. Jamie Rappaport Clark
Executive Vice President
Defenders of Wildlife
Ms. Deborah Williams
President
Alaska Conservation Solutions
Ms. Kassie Siegel
Director
Climate, Air and Energy Program
Center for Biological Diversity
To Read Testimony and See Photos from the Hearing, please CLICK HERE.
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