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Hearing on Polar Bears and Oil Drilling Statement of Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope Today, the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming, chaired by Congressman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.), holds a hearing on oil drilling and the future of the polar bear. Earlier this month, the Interior Department announced plans to open new oil drilling in Alaska’s Chukchi Sea, where an estimated one-tenth of the world’s polar bears live. The Interior Department has also been considering listing the polar bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. Last week, the agency postponed its listing decision for one month. The delay will allow a controversial Chukchi Sea oil lease sale to take place on February 6 without additional consideration of impacts on polar bears.
Statement of Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope: Global warming is melting the Arctic sea ice where polar bears live and hunt. Without sea ice, polar bears face drowning and starvation. If we don’t act now to combat global warming, America’s polar bears could be gone in our lifetime. The last thing this animal needs is another hurdle to survival. An oil spill in the Chukchi Sea would be catastrophic for polar bears. Where there is offshore drilling, there are oil spills. There is no proven method for cleaning up oil in the Arctic’s broken sea ice. We don’t need to drill the Arctic waters where polar bears hunt and raise their cubs. We already have clean energy solutions that will help combat global warming, prevent more sea ice from melting, and protect polar bears for generations to come. It doesn’t make sense to open prime polar bear habitat to oil drilling when the animal is under consideration for federal protection. It’s like locking your car doors and leaving all the windows down. The Interior Department is charged not just with managing oil leases, but with protecting America’s wildlife. The polar bear has never needed that protection more than it does today. At a time when Arctic sea ice is melting at an alarming rate, the Interior Department should make safeguarding America’s polar bears its top priority. www.sierraclub.org/coasts ### |
