Oil Companies Brace for Battles Over Polar Bear Listing
 

Steve Quinn, Associated Press writer, reports that the oil industry is "bracing for some courtroom battles to maintain its stake in Alaska's oil-rich fields now that the Interior Department has listed polar bears as a threatened species."

The Center saw it coming and has warned against this Energy Killer ploy to dismantle domestic oil and gas production. About 15 percent of America's oil comes from Alaska, and it could be much more: the floors of the Beaufort and Chukchi seas are rich in oil, and companies are exploring the Arctic Ocean for more. But now that's threatened by the federal government's listing of the polar bear as "threatened."

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne made the polar bear listing announcement May 14, 2008 at a news conference using slides and charts showing a steep decline in Arctic sea ice over the last 30 years and projections that ice  -- a bear habitat -- would continue to melt. He said that means the polar bear is a species likely to be in danger of extinction in the near future, a conclusion disputed by many scientists and policy experts.

ConocoPhillips, BP PLC, ExxonMobil Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell PLC have huge stakes in current North Slope production or have their eye on future exploration, but the government's polar bear listing may starve America in the midst of plenty through artificial scarcity.

Paula Easley, Anchorage-based consultant, is outraged. "This listing is ridiculous. The polar bear poulation in Alaska is healthy and huge. The real threat is green group lawsuits that will destroy America's energy future. I can see them being filed to shut down individual operations, stop new lease sales and permits, and wipe out a substantial part of out nation's domestic oil and gas production - and that in a time of record gas prices at the pump."

The worst of it, several oil experts said, is that national energy policies will be decided by the courts, which have a history of shutting down industry in favor of creatures they rule to be threatened or endangered. The courts can now put America's survival at risk in a world of anti-American hostility and violence.

The Interior Department outlined how it plans to protect the polar bear with its new status so it doesn't harm economic activities that range from from building power plants to oil and gas exploration.

Kempthorne said the oil industry operates under rules of the Marine Mammal Protection Act and that an Endangered Species Act provision called a "Section 4(d) Rule" will allow oil and gas activities to continue.

"This rule, effective immediately, will ensure the protection of the bear while allowing us to continue to develop our natural resources in the arctic region in an environmentally sound way," the Interior Department said in its announcement.

The idea that green groups would pay any attention to Kempthorne's 4(d) rule is absurd, said Center Executive Vice President Ron Arnold. "With their track record of shaping the law in their own image instead of following the law, environmentalists will charge in and find some sympathetic judge to overturn that rule - just before they wreck the entire economy with a flood of lawsuits against every industry in America. I hope I'm wrong about that, but I think not."

PUT UP WITH THE GREEN AGENDA
AND YOU RICHLY DESERVE THE POVERTY YOU ARE ABOUT TO GET

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