Palin sued Bush to get polar bears off the endangered species list

[amborin]

The Times (London)

May 23, 2008 Friday

Protecting polar bears gets in way of drilling for oil, says governor

BYLINE: Tim Reid in Washington


* Republican leader to sue Bush Administration

* Claim that climate models are unreliable

The polar bear should be removed from the endangered species list because its protected status will hamper drilling for oil and gas in Alaska, the state's Republican Governor has demanded.

Palin is suing the Bush Administration over its decision last week to place the animal under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, claiming that climate models predicting the continued loss of sea ice - the main habitat of polar bears - are unreliable.

The lawsuit came as a surprise because most of the outcry after last week's decision came from environmental groups. Although pleased that the Bush Administration had singled out climate change as a reason to place an animal under the protection of the Endangered Species Act, the green lobby were dismayed about restrictions attached to the listing.

The listing came with a big caveat: that it should not be misused to harm the economy and "set backdoor climate policy". Some environmentalists also accused the Administration of deliberately delaying the ruling to make it easier for oil companies to finalise $2.7 billion (£ 1.35 billion) in offshore oil leases in the Chukchi Sea, an area that is home to about 20 per cent of the world's polar bears. Numerous lawsuits were threatened by the green lobby.

Yet the Governor of Alaska - a state whose residents overwhelmingly support oil exploration - is arguing that the polar bear does not need added protection, and the bear populations have increased significantly over the past 30 years because of conservation. Ms Palin maintains that any commercial development in Alaska requiring federal permits or funding would have to go through a consultation process - described by Steven Daugherty, Alaska's assistant Attorney-General, as "basically a big time-and-money waster".

He added: "We believe that the listing was unwarranted and that it is unprecedented to list a currently healthy population based on uncertain climate models."

There are an estimated 20,000-25,000 polar bears in the Arctic, but scientists from the US Geological Survey predict that two thirds of the world's bears will disappear in the next 50 years because of a decline in the Arctic sea ice.

In a stark warning last year, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Centre said that the total Arctic ice cover had melted to its lowest level in modern times, and that if melting rates continued the summertime Arctic could be ice-free within 80 years.

Kassie Siegel, of the Centre for Biological Diversity, said that it was unconscionable for Ms Palin to ignore overwhelming evidence of global warming's threat to the polar bear's habitat. "Even the Bush Administration cannot deny the reality of global warming," she said. "The Governor is aligning herself and the state of Alaska with the most discredited, fringe, extreme viewpoints by denying this. "She is either grossly misinformed or intentionally misleading, and both are unbecoming. "

Dirk Kempthorne, the US Interior Secretary, who made the listing, said that it was based on three findings. "First, sea ice is vital to polar bear survival; second, the polar bear's habitat has dramatically melted; third, sea ice is likely to further recede in the future."

[rwheeler31]

1. Can we seu Akaska for greed?

[TheKentuckian]

3. We certainly can say thanks but no thanks to their

Reich Wing favorite daughter.

[Metric System]

2. Sarah Palin is Cruella DeVil! Coming soon to a voting booth near you.

[PBS Poll-435]

5. Exactly, Love

Bear hunting via helicopter?

Are you FUCKING kidding me?

I don't want any bears "hunted." Ever.

They are not a prize to be showcased at the local PTA meeting.

If bears are encroaching on human habitats, then FUCKING dart them and move them back to the wilderness. They only want food.

[GrizzlyMan]

4. Her anti evironmental bent is one of the reasons I want her DESTROYED

Second only to the threat she poses to this country if McSame is elected.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

9. Not just anti-environmental but also anti-science

She rejects the data on global warming and the disappearance of the polar bear population.

[Shoelace]

6. she's totally anti-environment - read this from care-2

Gov. Palin supports aerial hunting because the powerful Alaskan commercial hunting industry wants to eliminate nature's predators in order to inflate moose and caribou numbers so they can continue to cater to wealthy out-of-state trophy hunters.

In June, her Dept. of Fish and Game pulled 14 wolf cubs from their den and shot them in the head after gunning down 14 adults, including their mothers, from a helicoptor. A total of 28 wolves were killed. It is against state law to kill nursing mothers and/or their young. Nobody has been held accountable.

According to state wildlife policy, the fish and game biologists were required to look for a home for the orphaned cubs. Officials at the Alaska Zoo in Anchorage said they were never contacted, even though they would have taken in and sought permanent homes for the cubs. Nobody has been held accountable.

Hoping to boost the number of wolves killed this year, Palin announced the state would pay $150 for each wolf kill. "Permittees will be paid $150 when they bring in the left forelegs of wolves taken from any of several designated control areas."

Palin favors drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Her husband works for BP (formerly British Petroleum). She also opposes the listing of the Polar Bear as an endangered species out of concern that it might inhibit oil development off Alaska's Arctic Ocean coastline and has sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at taxpayers expense in favor of Big Oil's interests.

http://www.care2.com/news/member/969548606/863072

[1corona4u]

12. Does she not understand that it would upset the

natural balance of wildlife, if she takes out the bears? Really, she's trying to play mother nature...I hope she goes down.

[Heather MC]

7. Susan Surrandon needs to do a new commercial detailing this fact.

It's really scary how "we" will kill anything for Oil
People, animals, trees, our planet

I am fortunate I can keep my daily travels to bikes and walks
in the last 4 months I can count on one hand the number of times I have had to put gas in my car.

My only concern with Obama and Hillary's plan is that it calls for more Hybrids on the road. Well my family is at our limit financially but our vehicles are paid for.

I have never paid more than 10,000 for a car, I have been driving since 1992 and I have only had 3 cars. I am not a trade in every 6 months kinda person. The thought of buying another car in the next 5 years is not something I want to do, and if I do haveto get a new Vehicle, I do not want to pay 20 30K for Car And Hybrids cost more even in resale.

I think more drilling with just resort in the US selling of more oil to foreign nation so that will not work
so from where I am sitting when if comes to the energy crisis no one has a good answer
Am I missing something?

[lolamio]

17. The commercial should have video footage of a polar bear floating away on an ice flow.

I think that image will really resonate with some voters. Poor things. :(

[K8-EEE]

8. k&r n/t

[amborin]

10. Palin is a global warming denier, despite the evidence in her own city

Anchorage Daily News (Alaska)

March 8, 1998, Sunday, FINAL EDITION

SNOWLESS WASILLA BEMOANS LOSS OF IDITAROD START

BYLINE: S.J. Komarnitsky; Daily News Mat-Su Bureau

SECTION: NATION, Pg. 1A

LENGTH: 491 words

Wasilla is the home of the Iditarod, the place where mushers go to start the real race -- but not this year, not the year before that, and, well, not three years before that.
Hampered by a lack of snow and gale-force winds that scour even the hardest packed trail, the designated starting point of the last great race has, in recent years, found itself passed over in favor of Willow, 30 miles up the Parks Highway.

In fact, Mother Nature has spoiled Wasilla's fun so many times that city officials are considering a new spot for the start, one more sheltered from the wind than the old airstrip where the race usually starts. They're also looking at trucking in snow and enlisting snowmachines to pack a trail early in the year.



''We used to have good, normal Alaskan winters here with tons of snow,'' said Mayor Sarah Palin. ''But the last few years -- nothing.''
In the past five years, the race has started in Wasilla only twice, in 1995 and 1996. The rest of the time, mushers have lined up their teams in Willow. This year is no different.

The field near Wasilla's Main Street, where the Iditarod would have started this year, is snowless. And the surrounding trails are mostly frozen dirt.

''It's empty and lonely and bare,'' Palin said.

Even with El Nino in full effect and history as a guide, Palin was hoping this year would be different.

''Everyone was crossing fingers until a few weeks ago, thinking we'd get snow,'' she said. ''But it doesn't do any good to cross their fingers.''

The loss of the race is not only a blow to the city's reputation, but bad news for merchants who lost out on the city's other big event this year -- the Iron Dog snowmachine race, which started in Big Lake because Wasilla didn't have enough snow.

Instead of stopping at Wasilla shops and restaurants, most spectators will drive past to Willow.

The mood at the city's Chamber of Commerce was glum.

''It's a bummer,'' said Ed Brittingham, the executive director. ''The Iditarod is the biggest event in Wasilla.''

Gas stations, restaurants and bed and breakfasts will pick up some business, but not nearly as much as if the racers and spectators were in town, he said. Bob Andres, who runs the Windbreak hotel, cafe and lounge on the Parks Highway, said his business booms when the race is in town.

''Just think about,'' he said. ''Here's the start going on all day, and people are right in the area and they're hungry. They're going to stop in at all their favorite places. It's not nearly like it would be.''

Still, the city isn't without celebration. Even without the mushers, the Iditarod Days Festival will go on with arts and crafts shows at the mall, an ice-golf tournament on Wasilla Lake and several other events from museum exhibits to a microbrew festival.

And of course, there's always next year.

''We still want to be home of the Iditarod,'' Palin said.

[Hippo_Tron]

11. Looks like Steven Colbert will love her

Bears are, after all, vicious killing machines.

[Errrica]

13. I wish she'd get a brain.

She's such a moran!!!!!1111!!!111!!!!!

[IamyourTVandIownyou]

14. And then has the gall to wear a polar bear lapel pin.

[kwolf68]

16. That polar bar pin

Is exactly what makes these people tick.

If anyone saw her interview on CSPAN from Feb the interviewer asked her about it and her answer was so convuluted I Had no idea why she was in DC, why she was wearing the pin or even what side of the issue she was on.

I looked it up and found out that interview took place where she was suing the usfs to have the bear removed from the list.

She couldn't even be honest about it. It's just like meat packing plants...you like your burgers and steaks on the grill, but no one REALLY sees how it gets to your table.

This polar bear lapel is just another example of pushing percpetion ahead of reality.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

15. Wow! What a maverick! She totally broke with the Republicans to stand up for blah blah blah...

:eyes:


*Note: Snark not directed at you, OP. Snark directed at Sarah Palin.