WASHINGTON — A federal judge in California has ordered the Bush administration to decide by May 15 whether the polar bear deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The decision, issued late Monday by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, forces the Interior Department to determine whether climate change is pushing polar bears toward extinction.
The agency proposed listing polar bears in December 2006 because higher temperatures are shrinking the sea ice they depend on for survival, but officials have delayed a final decision on the matter for months.
After the Interior Department missed its own January deadline, three environmental advocacy groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace — sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and the Fish and Wildlife Service in U.S. District Court. In a filing in the case, Kempthorne proposed making a final decision by June 30. Wilken rejected the plan.
