Industry groups sue feds over polar bear rule
Originally published Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 11:15 a.m.
Updated Thursday, August 28, 2008 at 1:00 p.m.
Digg
delicious
Facebook
Mixx
Reddit
Stumble It!WASHINGTON -- Five industry groups have sued the Interior Department over a rule to protect the polar bear that they say unfairly singles out business operations in Alaska for their contribution to global warming.
Groups representing the oil and gas, mining, and manufacturing industries asked a federal judge Wednesday to ensure that laws designed to protect the bear, which was recently designated a threatened species, are not used to block projects that release heat-trapping gases in the state.
The American Petroleum Institute was joined by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Mining Association, the National Association of Manufacturers and the American Iron and Steel Institute in the lawsuit, which explicitly challenges three words - except in Alaska - that appear in a 62-page rule issued in May.
That's when the polar bear became the first species with a population that the government has classified as threatened by global warming. The bear depends on sea ice, which is expected to melt as temperatures climb, for survival.
The Bush administration made clear that it did not want the polar bear's status to become a tool of environmentalists seeking to regulate the gases blamed for global warming.
On the day it announced the polar bear as a threatened species, which bars harm to the bear or its habitat, the administration also issued a special rule limiting the types of projects that could be evaluated.
To further block attempts to use endangered species law to control greenhouse gas emissions, it exempted projects in all states but Alaska from undergoing reviews.
The groups say the three words - which they refer to as The Alaska Gap - are unlawful and run counter to the administration's belief that it is impossible to link emissions from a single project to the increasing temperatures that threaten the polar bear.
"Anchorage has no more effect on climate change or polar ice than does an emission in Ankara," the suit reads.
The lawsuit filed Thursday is the latest to target the polar bear. Environmentalists and the state of Alaska have also sued the Interior Department over the polar bear's protection.
In the meantime, energy companies have paid billions for the right to explore for oil and natural gas in polar bear habitat.
The Interior Department would not comment on the lawsuit.
Brendan Cummings, the oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, which is challenging the rule in court on the grounds that it is illegal, said Thursday that the lawsuit brought by industry is another attempt to "make the polar bear's protections more meaningless than they already are."
Community Discussion
Newsminer.com doesn't necessarily condone the comments here, nor does it review every post. Read our full user's agreement.
The bigger issue is that we need the ability to shoot nuisance bears. Otherwise they will be feeding on the village children. This whole thing is a bad idea.
Yeah...that "feeding" happens so often. Seems to me between shooting caribou and leaving them to rot and now wanting to shoot polar bears for some farfetched "just in case" the often-quoted respect for wildlife we hear about in the Native community is sadly going the way of many other traditions.
Maybe the interior department should put Native community traditions on the protected list. If a polar bear walked downtown Anchorage it would get the same treatment as a brown bear until it ate someone. Nothing should prevent a community from removing a 800 pound bear prowling the streets looking for an easy meal. IMO
Chicken little..... THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,THE ICE IS MELTING, THE ICE IS MELTING,
mit....you might want to make your ever so witty observation to the Native elders living along the Coastal Plain. They were among the first to raise the alarm that the ice pack is receding. Too, you might want to pass along your deep wisdom to the various shipping companies that are making plans to start year-long shipping through arctic areas now that the ice is moving offshore further than it ever has.
ONAPA.....we have moose that live here in the city limits in Fairbanks in the winter. They bed down in peoples' yards, wander from yard to yard foraging. In case you haven't ever checked, more people die each year due to collisions with moose and more people are injured each year due to encounters with moose than bears any year in which records have been kept. So by your "logic" we should be shooting all the moose that come near the cities, too. Maybe we should just kill all the moose and bears within a 25 mile radius of any city given their ability to travel that distance in a day. No, wait! Over the course of a year they can travel hundreds and hundreds of miles so maybe to make Alaska safe for you we should just kill every moose and bear in the state! And DOGS! Migosh, do you know how many people are attacked and even killed by dogs each year? We should do away with every dog in Alaska, too! Golly, and guns and knives! Hardly a week goes by you don't read about someone being shot or cut somewhere in Alaska. We should just do away with all that dangerous stuff, pad the hard, hard ground with cotton batting in case anyone falls down, and...OH, GEESUM! TREES! Trees fall on people, they poke people in the face and chest with their branches, they catch on fire. Hurry! We've got to cut down all the trees!!!
Post a comment
Commenting requires registration.