[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 56 (Wednesday, April 9, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E552]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         POLAR BEAR PROTECTION

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                            HON. JAY INSLEE

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, April 9, 2008

  Mr. INSLEE. Madam Speaker, I rise to show my dismay that it has been 
3 months since the Department of Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service, 
FWS, missed an important deadline to determine whether they would give 
the polar bear protections under the Endangered Species Act.
  Naysayers argue that the polar bear population is not at risk, but 
the studies show that an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 polar bears 
worldwide are threatened with ``losing their habitat over the next 50 
years'' because of global warming and melting sea ice.
  The U.S. Geological Survey, USGS, predicts that without action, ``11 
of the 19 subpopulations will be extinct by the middle of this century, 
with an additional three subpopulations vanishing shortly thereafter.''
  That same USGS study showed that Arctic melting is occurring faster 
than any scientific models have previously predicted.
  Incredibly, at the same time we are seeing these sobering scientific 
reports, the Department of Interior has moved forward with leasing oil 
and gas exploration rights for almost 30 million acres of the Polar 
Bear Seas. Just off the northwest coast of Alaska, this environmentally 
sensitive area is home to about 16,000 polar bears.
  This is not the time for drilling in prime polar bear habitat. It is 
the time for protecting polar bears and their habitat under the 
Endangered Species Act. FWS should act today to list the polar bear as 
a threatened, or even an endangered, species.

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