ANCHORAGE, Alaska — The polar bear can be found in just one place in America — Alaska — and is perhaps as much a symbol of the state as, say, alligators are of Florida. So, you might think Alaska’s politicians would be pounding on doors in Washington to protect it.
You’d be wrong.
As the federal government decides whether to list polar bears as threatened under the Endangered Species Act, Republican Gov. Sarah Palin and the state’s GOP congressional delegation are solidly opposed to the idea.
Listing the polar bear would trigger a plan to protect the shrinking Arctic sea ice. And that, Alaskans fear, could dim chances for a proposed project that could bring the state’s next big boom: a natural-gas pipeline that would tap the North Slope’s vast reserves.
The proposed $26 billion natural-gas pipeline would be the largest private-sector project ever undertaken in North America. It would tap 35 trillion cubic feet of proven natural-gas reserves on Alaska’s North Slope.
“This is yet another example of how a law with the best of intentions has been subverted by the lawyers for the extreme environmental organizations and the liberal Democratic leadership,” Rep. Don Young said.
Alaska’s elected officials reject climate models that predict a complete summer meltdown of the polar ice cap by 2030 or sooner.
They also dispute a U.S. Geological Survey study that predicts polar bears in Alaska could be wiped out by 2050.
Listing polar bears as threatened “would establish a dangerous precedent based on mathematical models instead of biological observations,” Sen. Ted Stevens said Tuesday.
Andrew Wetzler of Natural Resources Defense Council, one of the groups that sued to protect polar bears, said the state’s position, scientifically speaking, is “mostly gibberish” and “motivated by economic concerns and political concerns.”
He said that there is considerable evidence of a decline in polar bears in Canada and Alaska — with some of the animals starving, turning to cannibalism and drowning — and that most scientists think the dropoff is directly related to the loss of sea ice.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service missed its Jan. 9 deadline for a decision on the polar bear.
