Markey: Given Decision to Protect Polar Bear Habitat, Bush Administration Decides to Drill It Full of Holes Instead
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Select Committee, 202-225-4081
Markey: Given Decision to Protect Polar Bear Habitat, Bush Administration Decides to Drill It Full of Holes Instead
Interior Dept. to Choose Oil Drilling Ahead of Imperiled Bear
WASHINGTON (February 5, 2008) – For the Bush administration, today is the last day to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act before going ahead with an oil lease sale in the polar bear’s habitat. That oil drilling sale happens tomorrow.Yesterday, however, Interior Department Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, whose office supervises both decisions, indicated that the delays on the polar bear decision under his watch will not prevent the oil lease sale from occurring, and went so far as to say the two issues -- oil drilling and the survival of the polar bear -- are not interconnected.
“The Bush administration is making the absurd claim that these two issues—drilling for oil in a polar bear habitat, and the survival of the polar bear—are not interconnected,” said Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), Chairman of the House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming. “In fact, they are intimately connected, in law, in science, and in Secretary Kempthorne’s own office, where the extraction of oil is being given preference over the endangered status of an entire species.”
The decision on the polar bear was due in January, and if politics is not allowed to trump science, it is likely to be a landmark move to list this iconic species as threatened under the Endangered Species Act due to global warming. On January 7 of this year, however, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dale Hall said his agency would be delaying the decision by 30 days, putting it off until after the oil lease sale date.
Interior’s own analysis points to a 33-51 percent likelihood of a major oil spill occurring in the Chuckchi Sea, where the lease sale is set to occur and 10 percent of the world’s polar bear population lives. Dr. Steven Amstrup, the U.S. government’s top polar bear scientist, said in a January Select Committee hearing that a major oil spill world result in significant harm and fatalities in the polar bear population in the Chuckchi Sea.
Chairman Markey and the Select Committee held a hearing in January challenging the directors of the two agencies in charge of these decisions—Fish and Wildlife and the Minerals Management Service—and introduced legislation to ensure proper order was followed on these decisions. The Bush administration has continued with this “oil first, polar bear second” process.
“This administration’s ‘drill first, ask questions later’ energy policy cannot continue,” continued Chairman Markey. “It is time to put the interests of an industry awash in profits aside for just a moment and consider the vast impacts the Bush administration’s foolish decisions have on an imperiled species and on the planet.”
# # #
PLEASE NOTE: The House Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming was created to explore American clean energy solutions that end our reliance on foreign oil and reduce carbon pollution.
The Select Committee was active during the 110th and 111th Congresses. This is an archived version of the website, to ensure that the public has ongoing access to the Select Committee record. This website, including external links, will not be updated after Jan. 3rd, 2010.
The Select Committee was active during the 110th and 111th Congresses. This is an archived version of the website, to ensure that the public has ongoing access to the Select Committee record. This website, including external links, will not be updated after Jan. 3rd, 2010.
del.icio.us
Digg this
Reddit
Stumbleupon
Print This Page