Resource Development Council
 
 

200,000 square miles set aside for polar bears

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is designating more than 200,000 square miles in Alaska and off its coast as critical habitat for polar bears, an action that will put future oil and gas development and the expansion of community infrastructure in the Arctic in jeopardy.

Federal law prohibits government agencies from permitting actions that may affect the critical habitat for polar bears, which were placed on the Endangered Species Act (ESA) last year. While designation of critical habitat would not, in itself, prohibit oil and gas development and other activities, it would make an analysis of an activity’s effect on polar bears and their habitat an explicit part of any government review process.

Moreover, national environmental groups have signaled they are likely to go to court to block any proposed development in or near critical habitat.

The total area proposed for critical habitat would cover about half of the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s northwest coast, as well as vast areas of the Beaufort Sea. About 93 percent of the area proposed for the polar bear is sea ice, with the remaining seven percent made up of barrier islands or land-based dens on the North Slope.

A 60-day comment period will end December 28.

Governor Sean Parnell and Alaska Attorney General Dan Sullivan warned that resource development onshore and offshore of Alaska’s North Slope is being challenged through misuse of the ESA.

“Some are attempting to use the Endangered Species Act to shut down resource development,” said Parnell. “I won’t let it happen on my watch.”

Sullivan said it is important to understand the dire consequences of the legal theory being
advanced by groups that are misapplying the ESA and distorting its purpose.

“There are two competing visions of the future of Alaska,” Sullivan said. “Ours is one in which responsible resource development proceeds apace and protections remain in place for wildlife, including polar bears, which we treasure. The other vision is one in which Alaska’s resources are locked up, our economy languishes, we lose population and we lack the capacity to maintain schools, roads, bridges, harbors and airports, or to provide public safety. It is imperative that the latter vision does not become a reality.”

The State has filed two legal briefs urging the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., to reject the listing of the polar bear. The State is questioning the modeling used to project the loss of sea life and impacts to the bears. Polar bear numbers have actually remained healthy throughout their Alaska range and oil and gas development has not had an impact. In fact, the industry has spent millions of dollars on studies, which have greatly advanced research on the bears.

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