oil and gas drilling

Polar Bears Need an Opportunity – and a Place – to Survive.

Like so many of the bad decisions coming out of the Bush Administration, Polar Bear protection is no exception. The Administration came kicking and screaming to the decision to finally list the Polar Bear as a threatened species deserving protections under the Endangered Species Act. However, the listing came with strings attached. The exemptions the administration made with the listing virtually guarantee the habitat the Polar Bears need to survive will be compromised and so too the Polar Bears recovery.… Continue reading →

Burning Down the House to Roast the Pig

By Julie Fox Gorte,Board Member of the Endangered Species Coalition Daniel Yergin, in the prologue to his book The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money and Power, notes that “no other business so starkly and extremely defines the meaning of risk and reward—and the profound impact of chance and fate.” Yes indeed—and how much more stark does it get than when we think of the tradeoff between condemning yet more species to the annals of permanent loss in order… Continue reading →

Credibility melts like the summer ice

On May 15th, while acknowledging that polar bears are threatened with possible extinction in the next forty years or so, Secretary Kempthorne brushed aside the thoughts that oil and gas drilling might pose any risk, stating, “Polar bears are already protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, which has more stringent protections for polar bears than the Endangered Species Act does. The oil and gas industry has been operating in the Arctic for decades in compliance with these stricter protections.”… Continue reading →

Bush Administration Lists Polar Bear but Refuses to Protect Habitat or Address Drilling and Global Warming

Today, the Bush Administration listed the polar bear as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, but refused to address the main threats to the species – habitat loss, drilling and global warming. At the Endangered Species Coalition, we welcome the listing of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act, but we urge the Bush Administration to halt drilling in the bear’s habitat. I guess it is hard for Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne to ignore drowning polar bears and the… Continue reading →

More than 200,000 Citizens Ask Secretary Salazar for Real Protections for Polar Bear’s Arctic Home

More than 200,000 people sent Interior Secretary Ken Salazar a holiday gift of thanks today for proposing critical habitat for the polar bear throughout much of America’s Arctic. However, these same concerned citizens also asked Secretary Salazar not to make things worse for the beleagured species – listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in May 2008 – by allowing risky and aggressive oil and gas development to move forward in the lands and waters that polar bears, scores… Continue reading →