[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 7 (Thursday, January 17, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E46]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             INTRODUCTION OF BILL TO PROTECT THE POLAR BEAR

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 17, 2008

  Mr. MARKEY. Madam Speaker, I am introducing this bill today because 
the polar bear is in the crosshairs of global warming and the ill-
advised decisions of the Bush administration to proceed with an oil 
lease sale in a major polar bear habitat while delaying a decision to 
list the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. 
This legislation would require that the Interior Department delay the 
oil drilling rights sale in Alaska's Chukchi Sea until it had made a 
decision on the listing of the polar bear under the Endangered Species 
Act, and had performed its responsibility of establishing ``critical 
habitat'' for the polar bear.
  The Bush administration's own scientists project that the prospects 
for the polar bear's survival are bleak. Last year, Dr. Steven Amstrup, 
the Government's leading polar bear scientist, headed up a team of 
scientists charged with examining the impact of sea ice loss on polar 
bear populations. In a series of reports released last fall, Dr. 
Amstrup's team concluded that by mid-century, two-thirds of all the 
world's polar bears could disappear and that polar bears could be gone 
entirely from Alaska. Dr. Amstrup's team also noted that based on 
recent observations, this dire assessment could actually be 
conservative.
  The actions of the Bush administration in the coming months could 
very well determine the fate of this iconic animal. The Interior 
Department is currently considering whether to list the polar bear 
under the Endangered Species Act as a result of the impact of global 
warming. While this decision has been nearly three years in the making, 
last week the Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it was going to 
delay any decisions beyond its statutorily required deadline--that 
legal protection for the polar bear would be put on ice while its 
critical habitat continues to melt.
  Meanwhile, the Interior Department is revving up its regulatory 
machine to allow new oil drilling in sensitive polar bear habitat. 
Earlier this month, the Minerals Management Service finalized its plan 
to move forward early next month with an oil and gas lease sale of 
nearly 30 million acres in the Chukchi Sea, an area that is essential 
habitat for polar bears in the United States.
  The timing of these two decisions leaves the door open for the 
administration to give Big Oil the rights to this polar bear habitat 
the moment before the protections for the polar bear under the 
Endangered Species Act go into effect. Rushing to allow drilling in 
polar bear habitat before protecting the bear would be the epitome of 
this administration's backwards energy policy--a policy of drill first 
and ask questions later.
  The decision to list the polar bear must be made on the best science. 
The Bush administration is still working out how it can solve global 
warming--with great delay--but has not yet made any declaration that 
we, or the polar bear, are in any danger. The Endangered Species Act 
does not call for a solution before a declaration, but rather a clear 
decision to be made on the biological status of a species at a specific 
time. The Bush administration are not going to solve global warming 
without first declaring it a problem, and they are not going to save 
the bear without first declaring it endangered or threatened under the 
Endangered Species Act.

  Robert Frost wrote about two roads diverging in the wood, and here we 
have the Bush administration looking down two roads with regard to the 
polar bear. Down one road lies the survival of the polar bear and the 
orderly consideration of oil drilling and global warming and common 
sense. Down the other road, too often traveled by this administration, 
lies regulatory lunacy and a blatant disregard for moral 
responsibility. I urge Secretary Kempthorne and his agency to choose 
the Bush administration's road less traveled and protect the polar 
bear, and the rest of us, from global warming.

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