Judge Orders Bush Administration to Stop Delaying Polar Bear Protection
Finds It Guilty of Violating Endangered Species Act
OAKLAND, Calif.— A federal judge has found the Bush administration guilty of violating
the Endangered Species Act and ordered the administration to issue a
final listing decision for the polar bear by May 15, 2008. The polar
bear, suffering as its Arctic sea ice habitat melts far faster than
forecast, is one of the world’s most imperiled animals due to global
warming.
The Honorable Claudia Wilken ruled for
the plaintiffs — Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources
Defense Council, Greenpeace — on all issues in finding that the Bush
administration has violated the law by missing the deadline for a final
polar bear decision by nearly four months. The court order,
issued Monday evening, requires the administration to publish a final
decision in the Federal Register by May 15, 2008, and for the decision
to take effect immediately. This decision is the result of a petition
by the groups, initially submitted in 2005, to list the polar bear
under the Endangered Species Act.
“Today's
decision is a huge victory for the polar bear,” said Kassie Siegel,
climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity and
lead author of the 2005 petition seeking the Endangered Species Act
listing. “By May 15th the polar bear should receive the protections it
deserves under the Endangered Species Act, which is the first step
toward saving the polar bear and the entire Arctic ecosystem from
global warming.”
The Interior Department had
requested an additional delay, until June 30, 2008, for its lawyers to
finish reviewing and revising the decision. The Court disallowed
further delay, stating: “Defendants offer no specific facts that would
justify the existing delay, much less further delay. To allow
Defendants more time would violate the mandated listing deadlines under
the ESA and congressional intent that time is of the essence in listing
threatened species.”
“The federal court has thrown
this incredible animal a lifeline,” said Andrew Wetzler, director of
NRDC's Endangered Species Project. “The Endangered Species Act requires
the decision to be based solely on science, and the science is
absolutely unambiguous that the polar bear deserves protection.”
Judge Wilken also ordered that the listing decision take effect
immediately, forgoing a 30-day waiting period that applies unless
circumstances warrant faster action. In rejecting the administration's
claim that the polar bear will not be harmed in the absence of
Endangered Species Act protection, the judge pointed to a pending
proposal to permit oil industry operations in the Chukchi Sea, and
stated: “Defendants fail to show that the thirty-day waiting period
will not pose a threat to the polar bear.”
“We
have won in the court of public opinion and of law,” said Melanie
Duchin, Greenpeace global warming campaigner in Alaska. “We hope that
this decision marks the end of the Bush administration's delays and
denial so that immediate action may be taken to protect polar bears
from extinction.”
Polar bears live only in the
Arctic and are totally dependent on the sea ice for all of their
essential needs. The rapid warming of the Arctic and melting of the sea
ice pose an overwhelming threat to the polar bear, already suffering
starvation, drowning, and population declines as its sea-ice habitat
melts away.
Since the petition to protect polar
bears under the Endangered Species Act was first filed, new science
paints a dim picture of the polar bear's future. In September, the U.S.
Geological Survey predicted that two-thirds of the world's polar bear
population would likely be extinct by 2050, including all polar bears
within the United States. Several leading scientists now predict the
Arctic could be ice-free in the summer as early as 2012.
Listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act guarantees
federal agencies will be obligated to ensure that any action they
authorize, fund, or carry out will not jeopardize the polar bears'
continued existence or adversely modify their critical habitat, and the
Fish and Wildlife Service will be required to prepare a recovery plan
for the polar bear, specifying measures necessary for its protection.
In December 2005, the groups sued the Bush administration for failing
to respond to the original petition. In February of 2006, as a result
of that first lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service found that
protection of polar bears “may be warranted” and commenced a full
status review of the species. A settlement agreement in that case
committed the Service to make the second of three required findings in
the listing process by December 27, 2006, at which time the Service
announced the proposal to list the species as threatened. The proposed
listing rule was published in the Federal Register on January 9, 2007.
By law, the Service was required to make a final listing decision
within one year of the proposal. The Service ignored the January 9,
2008 statutory deadline for making a final decision, prompting the
current lawsuit.

# # #

The Center for Biological Diversity is a national, nonprofit
conservation organization with more than 40,000 members dedicated to
the protection of endangered species and wild places. www.biologicaldiversity.org

Greenpeace is an independent campaigning organization with 2.7 million
members worldwide that uses peaceful protest and creative communication
to expose global environmental problems and promote solutions for the
future. www.greenpeace.org

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national, nonprofit
organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists
dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in
1970, NRDC has 1.2 million members and online activists, served from
offices in New York, Washington, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco
and Beijing. www.nrdc.org