WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, which promised a sharp break from the Bush White House on global warming, declared Friday that it would stick with a Bush-era stand against expanding protection for polar bears.
To the dismay of environmentalists, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar refused to rescind a Bush rule that says actions that threaten the polar bear’s survival cannot be considered when safeguarding the mammal if they occur outside the bear’s Arctic home.
The rule was aimed at heading off the possibility that the bear’s survival could be cited by opponents of power plants and other facilities that produce carbon dioxide, a leading pollutant blamed for global warming.
The Endangered Species Act requires that a threatened or endangered species have its habitat protected.
