Judge orders US to decide whether to protect polar bear

A decision by a federal judge in California forces the Interior Department to determine whether climate change is pushing polar bears toward extinction. (Jonathan Hayward/The Canadian Press via associated press/file 2007)

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 US 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 warmer 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 2008 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 US District Court for the Northern District of California.

In a recent filing in the case, Kempthorne proposed making a final decision by June 30. But Wilken rejected that plan, writing: "Defendants offer no specific facts that would justify the existing delay, much less further delay. To allow defendants more time would violate the mandated listing deadlines under the [act] and congressional intent that time is of the essence in listing threatened species."

"Today's decision is a huge victory for the polar bear," said Kassie Siegel, climate program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, based in Tucson, who was lead author of the 2005 petition that prompted the Interior Department to consider listing the species. "By May 15 the polar bear should receive the protections it deserves under the Endangered Species Act, which is the first step toward saving the polar bear and the entire Arctic ecosystem from global warming."

Shane Wolfe, a spokesman for the Interior Department, said, "We have received the court's decision and are reviewing it. We will evaluate the legal options and will decide the appropriate course of action."

The final ruling on the polar bear's status could have far-reaching implications for the nation's climate policy.

Several Republicans, including President Bush and Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma, the ranking member on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, have argued that environmental groups are trying to use the case of the polar bear listing to force a federal limit on greenhouse gas emissions.