Feds designate 'critical habitat' for polar bear
Published Thursday, October 22, 2009
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Stumble It!WASHINGTON - The Obama administration said Thursday it is designating more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska and off its coast as "critical habitat" for polar bears, an action that could add restrictions to future offshore drilling for oil and gas.
Federal law prohibits agencies from taking actions that may adversely affect critical habitat and interfere with polar bear recovery.
Assistant Interior Secretary Tom Strickland called the habitat designation a step in the right direction to help polar bears stave off extinction, while recognizing that the greatest threat to the bear is the melting of Arctic sea ice caused by climate change.
"As we move forward with a comprehensive energy and climate strategy, we will continue to work to protect the polar bear and its fragile environment," Strickland said at a news conference.
The total area proposed for critical habitat designation would cover about 200,541 square miles - about half in the rugged Chukchi Sea off Alaska's northwest coast. About 93 percent of the area proposed for the polar bear is sea ice, with the remaining 7 percent made up of barrier islands or land-based dens of snow and ice.
Designation as critical habitat would not, in itself, bar oil or gas development, but would make consideration of the effect on polar bears and their habitat an explicit part of any government-approved activity.
Thursday's announcement starts a 60-day public comment period, with a final rule expected next year. Interior faces a June 30 deadline for critical habitat designation under terms of a settlement agreement between the government and three environmental groups.
The Bush administration last year declared polar bears "threatened," or likely to become endangered. The May 2008 order by then-Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne cited the bear's need for sea ice, the dramatic loss of such ice in recent decades and computer models that suggest sea ice is likely to recede further in the future.
Environmental groups hailed the habitat announcement, but noted that it came in the same week that the Interior Department approved a plan by a subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell to drill exploratory wells on two leases in the Beaufort Sea off Alaska's north coast. The proposed drilling sites are within the area proposed for critical habitat designation.
"If polar bears are to survive in a rapidly melting Arctic, we need to protect their critical habitat, not turn it into a polluted industrial zone," said Brendan Cummings, a lawyer with the Arizona-based Center for Biological Diversity, which filed a lawsuit in the polar bear case.
Cummings called the Interior Department "schizophrenic" - on the one hand declaring its intent to protect polar bear habitat in the Arctic, yet at the same time "sacrificing that habitat to feed our unsustainable addiction to oil."
The announcement comes one day after the state of Alaska filed a new complaint in its effort to overturn the listing of the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.
Former Gov. Sarah Palin filed suit last year, saying that Interior did not respond to the state's concerns in a timely manner before listing the polar bears as threatened. State officials say the listing could cripple offshore oil and gas development in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, which provide prime habitat for the polar bears.
Gov. Sean Parnell, who succeeded Palin upon her resignation last summer, said the Endangered Species Act was being used as a way to shut down resource development along Alaska's northern coast. Parnell said he does not intend to let that happen.
Environmental groups monitoring the Arctic have long complained that federal regulators routinely grant permits for petroleum exploration without adequately considering consequences for whales, polar bears, walrus and other marine mammals. They say boats, drilling platforms and aircraft will add to bears' stress by causing them to flee and expend more energy.
Conservation groups also say oil companies have not demonstrated they can clean up an oil spill in broken ice. Cleanup off Alaska's coast could be slowed by extreme cold, moving ice, high wind and low visibility.
Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council said designation of critical habitat is a powerful tool to protect threatened species, but said more must be done to save the polar bear from extinction.
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On the Net:
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: http://www.fws.gov/
Community Discussion
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Always wanted to see Alaska become the world's biggest national park. Not only survival of the polar bears, but survival of the people who want to live in a real frontier and not LA of the north.
All you good liberals who voted for obama should give up any job that is related to oil and stand aside for those who would like to feed their families from these nasty ole big oil jobs.
Almost forgot,...Sarah will reverse this action in 2012.
Obama has never even set foot in this State yet he feels it necessary to take this drastic step??? He has absolutely NO IDEA what he has done.
They treat us like we're in a zoo. Someone please tell Obama that if climate change is truly threatening the polar bears, creating political boundaries will do nothing for them. Once again, he capitulates to our enemies.
+1 dukit22
I do live in Alaska
You don't need to "work" for an oil company to benefit from oil production in Alaska, in other words "feed your family" north slope oil, so to speak.
All you have to do is live in Alaska and collect the free handout given to any US citizen who decides to live here for more than two years, or PFD.
Aren't most oil workers from out of state anyway?
Not clear if Shell can go forward with "approved" exploratory drilling
sites? More clarification is necessary on this point, as the article is "double speaking" on this point!
How many barrels of oil does it take to kill a polar bear, and how many barrels of oil do liberals burn every day.
Just think of how many polar bears could be saved if all liberals stopped all use of fosile fuels today.
why do liberals hate polar bears so much, are you that addicted to oil that you can't make a sacrifice, and park your cars, pretty please.
If a conservative doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.
If a liberal doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.
If a conservative is a vegetarian, he doesn`t eat meat.
If a liberal is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.
If a conservative is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.
If a liberal is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.
If a conservative is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.
If a liberal is down-and-out, he wonders who is going to take care of him.
If a conservative doesn’t like a talk show host, he switches channels.
If a liberal doesn’t like a talk show host, he demand that those they don’t like be shut down.
If a conservative is a non-believer, he doesn’t go to church.
If a liberal is a non-believer he wants any mention of God and religion silenced. (Unless it’s a foreign religion, of course!)
If a conservative decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.
If a liberal decides he needs health care, he demands that the rest of us pay for his.
If a conservative slips and falls in a store, he gets up, laughs and is embarrassed.
If a liberal slips and falls, he grabs his neck, moans like he's in labor and then sues.
If a conservative reads this, he'll forward it so his friends can have a good laugh.
If a liberal reads this, he will delete it because he's "offended".
As long as we don't drill next to them the ice caps won't continue to melt...they're melting now and there's no drilling now, but if we don't create change it will fix everything?
Oil from the middle east is better for the environment/safer for polar bears?
I think the feds need to go back to highschool science class.
Tugboat - Great Post!
If a polar bear looked like an iguana, would the liberal have chosen it to be the poster child of global warming.
Prospector- what did the polar bears ever do to become y'alls enemy?
Are they standing in the way of the noble cause of turning the arctic ocean into the Gulf of Mexico with oil rigs? What's the big excuse gonna be when the next, bigger, "Exxon Valdez" happens? I guess things like that are just wrote-off as "collateral damage" and don't concern people like you at all unless it got in the way of making a profit, of course.
GREED is the only real enemy any of us have, not nature or even His Majesty Lord Commander In Chief President Barack Hussein Obama.
If a conservative could post something without making up a grade school level conspiracy theory comprised of old-wives tales and rumors....
...it would be a miracle.
Liberal,..put up or shut up, park your cars, show that you care.
Thank all the gods that be that Tugboat doesn't rule the World as there would be no telling what he'd come up with then.
You don't have to be a liberal to want to protect Polar Bears, but then I don't have a closed mind either.
Lost - your comebacks are so weak. Either make them more clever or stop posting.
Didn't know oil melted ice - now I know what to put on my sidewalks!!
Thank you my hero Obama. You truely are a wonderful president and humanatarian. You have made my day. Also, congradulations for winning the Nobel Peace Price. You are worthy of such and honor.
Tugboat = Redneck
Nancy, on your post.....
Thank you my hero Obama. You tru(no E)ly are a wonderful president and human(its an I)tarian. You have made my day. Also, congra(its a T)ulations for winning the Nobel Peace Pri(its a Z)e. You are worthy of such (delete "and") honor.
Wow, grade school fixes, and I AM a redneck.....
Oh, hey what do you want to bet me that it will get to -60 this year in Fairbanks? Just like it has EVERY year, for the past eons!
Just curious.........
Also, what do you use to heat your house? Provide electricity? Drive your car? Wait, do you even live in Fairbanks? Or are you like Brendan Cummings, above, or your Lord and Saviour Obama who have never and will never set foot here, where the rubber meets the road? Would you really rather depend on the middle east to provide us with petroleum?
Pathetic I say.......
Cowardly.........
Tugboat,
YOU made MY day.......
But sorry, you speak utter truth, but you are not my hero......
The real God is
Why is it that Denmark has the largest population of polar bears in the world and also has off shore drilling and they have no problems. Most be they are a whole lot smarter than Americans in operating their rigs.
They just practice greenie-bashing, a favorite past time in Denmark.
No Problem folks...Senator Begich will speak to Lord Obama and get this all turned around....Maybe even ask his good friend Ms. Boxer to help him on this matter....Sorry Senator Boxer...
the sad thing is that most people in the lower 48 really think the polar bear is on the verge of extinction. this is how powerful the liberal-environmental lie and propaganda machine is.
Thank you N2AK for correcting my grammer. You must be a english teacher in our fine school district.
again, GRAMMAR...., and it's (AN) English teacher
no I am not a teacher....
and I failed English in high school, back when the old Bush was in office......
Well that is it then, all you rednecks can load up your trucks and head back down to Texas and Louisiana. No oil jobs here for you!
What persentage of a liberals paycheck is directly linked to oil, logging or mining,...you should be ashamed,..you have let the polar bears down.
I wonder if a seal give a rats rear if the polar bears hang around.
Poor seals,...Tugboat still loves you.
It is time for the UAF to stop burning fossile fuel,..come on people, lets save a polar bear.
How many barrels of oil does it take for a degree at the UAF.
If the UAF moved to a warmer climate,...how many polar bears could be saved.
Come on rednecks, might as well give it up, it will be too tough to make it up here. Time to head back down south where it is nice and warm and it doesn't cost you a fortune to heat your 4000 sq footer. Just follow tugboat, he knows the way in case you have forgotten..
Oh GREAT..
Lock up some more of our MUCH needed God givin resources ......
At the expense of the well being and safety of America
Great, more federal intrusion into our state's rights and all the liberals can do is throw puns.
Seriously, develop a sense of pride and respect for where you live or start examining why you live there.
I drive a car because it is the best way to move my family around. I'm buying a scooter for next year to commute to work because it makes more financial sense to do so. If polar bears go the way of the dodo then I will not shed a tear although I *might* miss constantly hearing self-righteous self-interest groups use the animal as an excuse to further their own agenda at the expense of their fellow citizens. Finally, I will not change my entire lifestyle because it offends someone else's hypocritical opinions. My life is my right protected by God's natural law and, by the grace of God, protected by our Constitution against this very type of oppressive and objectionable behavioral influence being pushed by the enviromental lobby.
My piece has been stated. Now, do I believe that more fuel efficient vehicles and heating options is a good idea? Yes, I do- more fuel efficient and economical methods of heating our homes and transporting our families and property makes financial sense when trying to balance a budget and provide for my family. That does not mean I have to be forced to the lengths some individuals are trying to direct others to; that is the beauty of our country: I am free to live my life as I see fit and you have the right to live your life as you see fit.
Now stop interferring in how I live my life!
nancy, I'm glad I haven't had dinner yet. Your comment officially killed my appetite. Please start thinking, questioning, and examining opinions and facts for yourself. The party/union line serves no one but the party/union.
Maybe it is time for Alaska secede from the USA. Obama-nation is going to really do damage to Alaska and her natural resources. We need Alaska a whole lot more than they need us down here in the lower 48!
From PolarMark: "the sad thing is that most people in the lower 48 really think the polar bear is on the verge of extinction. this is how powerful the liberal-environmental lie and propaganda machine is."
Yes and in places like Churchill, Manitoba you have groups like Polar Bear Int'l perpetuating the myth to get tourism hyped up to come see them before they're gone. There is definitely serious kool-aid drinking happening on this issue.
The locals who have been in and around Churchill for many years, decades in fact, say the bears are healthier, fatter and in generally higher numbers (multiple births, etc) now than even 5-10 years ago.
This past year as an example, the bears fed later into the summer (June/July 08) before the total thaw . . . and were out on the Hudson Bay earlier when it froze over for them to return to hunt and eat (Nov. 08).
Last time this happened when Carter was in all us "Rednecks" went down to Cantwell and got drunk. Where we goin' this time?
Kaktovik, Dec 21st!
In a state where ~80% of every dollar of state money spent consists of oil revenues, this should come as a concern to us all. The center for biological diversity has openly admitted to using the endangered species act as a wedge to force climate change legislation. The end they have in mind is clear and very sinister.
Bring on the hard times. Time for the great toilet bowl to flush all the boomers back out to the lower 48 and we can get back to the time before Discovery well was struck. To a time before Bill Allen and Veco, BP and Exxon, to a time when people lived here for the beauty of the place, and not just for the money. The people who will be left here will be the same type that were here before the pipeline, who didn't make a lot, but didn't need all that much either. They were financially poorer days, but better days in my op.
At the same time The Great Leader MaoBama locks up 200,000 square miles of ocean for a fictional crisis amongst the expanding and healthy polar bear population, he approves billions of US taxpayer dollars to Petrobras in Brazil for offshore oil development.
Hope and change for energy security and jobs was gone the day the narcissist in chief took power. It cost $800 million to buy him the presidency pay back time for his "investors".
robir,
I remember that drunk that killed himself on the wing strut of an airplane while riding his snow machine. He never trespassed again
Obama, one of the great "Men of Peace" descibed in Dylan's Infidels album, would rather see American soldiers shot up in Afghanistan than drill for oil and gas in America. That's what one set of his puppet handlers - the oil companies - also want. The environmentalists would not not be so happy with his actions in Alaska if, like in Vietnam, they were getting their little butts conscripted to fight in the Middle East. It's a funny little tune that is played, and Alaska and her polar bears are just pawns in their game, to quote Dylan again.
You mean Robert Zimmerman?
I am reading Glenn Becks book, Arguing With Idiots,...he must have read this blog to get inspiration.
There is a good many of you liberals he mentions in his book, you should read it. You would be amazed.
Since Rush and Glenn are on at the same time, sometimes I have to make a difficult decision as to which one will get my undivided attention for my daily fix on concervatism 101.
Do liberals prefer Rush or Beck,...or even Hannity.
Or do you still get you news events from David Letterman or MSNBC.
If the UAF shut down the Fairbanks store and moved everything including all the liberal professors to Anchorage, how many barrels of oil and tons of coal would they not burn. And since fossile fuel constumption is directly related to polar bear life span, how many polar bears could be saved from this move.
If you need help moving,..you can borrow my diesel pickup truck.
Why is it that when the hard working miners of old discovered Fairbanks,...that the leaches were not far behind, looking to pick a poke of gold from said hard working miner.
Seems that history repeats itself.
so far Tug has 16 comments on this one article .. will Tug make it to 20? 40?
Tuggy, the liberal in me wants you to shut up, the conservative in me hopes you wont.
TUGBOAT: Love your conservative/liberal comparison (and, yes, I'm passing it on to my friends). :)
As for the article: 1.)Obama has never been here, so he SHOULD mind his own business and leave the managing of our wildlife to our STATE Department of Fish and Game. Besides, Obama's too chicken to enter our state anyway. (too many gun-carrying conservatives and lipstick-wearing pitbulls around)
2.) Global warming is a BIG hoax. We have had decades of warmth, followed by decades of cold...it's a season, people-things change.
3.) What if Noah's decendants rallied to save the dinosaurs as much as all the liberals who rally to save the polar bears? How would you like to go for a walk and wonder if you are going to be eaten by a t-rex? Sometimes things go extinct for a good reason.
4.) MAYBE JOE WAS RIGHT!
"Since Rush and Glenn are on at the same time, sometimes I have to make a difficult decision as to which one will get my undivided attention for my daily fix on concervatism 101.
Tug you must be the pride of all conservatives everywhere! Your babbling rants certainly has the rest of the Rush/Beck crowd on here swooning all over you! Lets see how many more insane remarks you can post in the next hour. You are the ultimate conservative..
Tugboat- I love your conservative/liberal comparison, great job!!!
I don't live in Alaska but I think this kind of Designation of Land Should be voted on only by the people of Alaska, cause someone who has never been there, surely doesn't know what is best!!
To the person that was speaking of the PFD, I am not sure if you are from Alaska or not, but it really isn't that much, when you think about how much more they pay for everything compared to us in the lower 48!! Plus they only get it once a year WOW!!!
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