Cheat Seeking Missiles

Not content with their victory in convincing duping the Bush Admin into listing the polar bear as an endangered species - despite its swelling populations - the Center for Biological Depravity Diversity has already filed another polar bear lawsuit.

WASHINGTON — Conservation groups are threatening to file a lawsuit against the Bush administration for failing to take steps to better protect the polar bear from the effects of offshore oil and gas development in the Arctic.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Environment notified Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne on Monday of their intention to sue regarding the department’s decision to hold oil and gas lease sales in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas without considering the impact on polar bear habitat. (source)

As I wrote at the time, the listing included a Special Rule that set guidelines detailing the rules oil companies would have to follow if they wished to continue exploration and drilling in polar bear habitat:

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne tried to mute the impact of his listing today of the polar bear by assuring us in his comments that he’s covered our fears of economic meltdown by preparing an administrative guidance:

“I am also announcing that this listing decision will be accompanied by administrative guidance and a rule that defines the scope of impact my decision will have, in order to protect the polar bear while limiting the unintended harm to the society and economy of the United States.” …

[Fish & Wildlife Service] Director [Dale] Hall will issue guidance to Fish and Wildlife Service staff that the best scientific data available today cannot make a causal connection between harm to listed species or their habitats and greenhouse gas emissions from a specific facility, or resource development project, or government action.

Forget it; the guidance might as well have been written on toilet paper; it cannot alter the provisions of ESA ….

So now here we are, two months out, and the guidance is being challenged by the same folks who are doing all they can to drive gas prices into the stratosphere. As usual, they are attacking “cumulative impacts,” a lovely little provision of most every environmental regulation special interest groups (i.e., Greenie lobbyists) have placed there so any impact, no matter how small, can be multiplied through largely fictional “cumulative” multipliers.

In a gem of hysterical, unfounded overstatement, the Center’s spokeswacko, Brendon Cummings, said:

“The only thing keeping pace with the drastic melting of the Arctic sea ice is the breakneck speed with which the Department of the Interior is rushing to sell off polar bear habitat for fossil fuel development. For polar bears to survive in the face of global warming, we need to protect their habitat, not auction it off to oil companies.”

Cummings failed to mention that polar bears have survived prior bouts of global warming just fine, that the footprint of oil ops on their habitat is minuscule, and that polar bear populations have grown since the initiation of oil drilling operations in Alaska. And for that matter, that this year’s polar ice melt appears to be far less dramatic than last year’s.

Par for the course for these enviro-propagandists.

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