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Monday, March 10, 2008

Polar Bear Indecision Will Be Investigated

The Department of Interior's inspector general is conducting a preliminary investigation into the Department's continuing delay of a decision to protect the polar bear, according to the Associated Press. Interior's Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) missed a January deadline to decide whether to list the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.

The inspector general's office opened the investigation in response to complaints from environmental groups, AP reports. Interior officials may have missed the deadline intentionally as a favor to the oil and gas industry. In February, another agency in the department awarded "$2.6 billion in winning bids from companies seeking to drill for oil and gas in Alaska's Chukchi Sea," according to The Washington Post.

Because Interior delayed the polar bear decision, oil and gas companies will not have to take special precautions to ensure the safety and health of the polar bear species in the Chukchi Sea — one of the polar bear's most important habitats. According to the World Wildlife Fund, "this lease sale is taking place before the ESA listing decision, allowing [Interior] to sell off polar bear habitat to the oil and gas industry without adhering to the protections of the ESA."

This is not the first time Interior's inspector general has looked into political manipulation of endangered species decisions. In March 2007, the inspector general's office exposed Julie MacDonald, an FWS employee who had been ignoring scientific findings calling for species protections and leaking internal documents to industry lobbyists. MacDonald resigned amid the ensuing fallout.

The inspector general will decide whether to conduct a full-blown inquiry based on the preliminary investigation.