The Future Earth has been keeping track of the ongoing saga of the Polar Bear's endangered species listing. The US Fish & Wildlife Service proposed listing the polar bear as endangered in January 2007 due to climate change and habitat destruction. It had one year to finalize the decision. As reported on The Future Earth on January 10th, 2008, they missed the deadline despite a record number of letters from the public in support of the listing. It was widely suspected that this delay was so that the administration could move forward with an oil lease sale on February 6th of land in the Chukchi Sea, which is an important part of their habitat.
They delayed the listing until February 8th. And then they missed that deadline as well. As reported by The Future Earth on February 14th, the Chukchi Sea land had been sold on February 6th. If the bear is listed as threatened, the exploration would be subject to regulations under the Endangered Species Act.
A letter was sent from the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to Mr. Kempthorne requesting that he appear before the Committee on April 2nd: As Secretary of Interior, you have a responsibility to the people to answer questions before the oversight committee on this serious breach of the Department's duty to follow the law and protect the magnificent polar bear from the threat of extinction.
The Secretary did not show up for the hearing. As reported by the Anchorage Daily News, Kempthorne instead sent a letter and spoke personally to several of the committee members. He also pledged to testify once he had issued a decision, now three months late.
"Careful deliberation will not imperil the survival of the polar bear, it will better ensure that the decision is legally sound and based upon the best available science and the requirements of the law," Kempthorne wrote in his letter.
But that was not enough for the committee's chairwoman, Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif, who said she was "disappointed" with Kempthorne's behavior -- especially since he had been on the panel while in the Senate. Boxer scolded Kempthorne's record on endangered species designations, pointing out that he had yet to classify a single species as endangered during his tenure as interior secretary.
I'll keep you posted on this story as it undoubtedly continues throughout 2008.
Further Reading:
LA Times
MSNBC
Contra Costa Times
Friday, April 4, 2008
Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne Refuses to Testify at Senate Hearing on Polar Bears
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2 comments:
Oh, that is just reprehensible. Is there no such thing as being held "in contempt of Congressional inquiry?" This would seem like a textbook case. Another example of the Bush government skirting accountability: "When asked to appear before the Senate to explain your actions (or inactions, as the case may be) just don't show up. Let them know that any testifying will be on your terms, not theirs."
Why does this man (and pretty much every other official in the Bush administration) think he's beyond the reach of Congress? Why are they allowed to get away with this?
Aanother federal agency reduced by the Bush administration to simply rubber-stamping corporate profit deals at the expense of national resources they are ostensibly charged with protecting.
Both Bush and Cheney have indicated that they believe the power of the executive branch should be expanded, despite the system of checks and balances that were put in place by the framers of the Constitution. This is just one of many power struggles playing out in which the executive branch exerts its dominance over the other branches.
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