Bill Delays Oil Exploration for Polar Bear Listing

Environmentalists welcomed a bill introduced by a House Democrat last week that would delay the sale of land in Alaska for oil exploration. Environmentalists believe the Interior Department wants to avoid classifying the polar bear as an endangered species until the land -- which is polar bear habitat -- is sold.
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"Sale 193 was originally scheduled for June 2007, but we delayed the sale until February 2008 to provide sufficient time to complete the environmental analyses," he said in his testimony for the select committee on Thursday.
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According to Randall Luthi, director of the Minerals Management Service, "the Chukchi Sea Planning Area could hold 15 billion barrels of oil and 76 trillion cubic feet of natural gas ... thus providing potentially significant future production of oil and gas from Northern Alaska."
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"Rep. Markey and too many other members of Congress are willing to use any tools available to stop oil production in this country," he said. "Then they complain about high gasoline prices and importing oil from countries they don't like."

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