Wednesday, May 21, 2008

polar bear suits

Lawsuits, not fur suits.
Conservation groups are suing the Interior Dept over the refusal to use the new polar bear listing to address greenhouse gases, according to this AP story by Dan Joling.
Also of note is Gov Palin's statement on potential litigation, which came out a few days before.

. . . By exempting oil and gas development and subsistence use from his decision, the Secretary sought to minimize negative consequences for Alaska. He also found no linkage between economic development in the lower 48 states and the loss of critical polar bear habitat in Alaska. Certain groups have already indicated their intention to litigate the Secretary's findings.

I want to assure Alaskans that my administration, through the Department of Law, will join with those parties seeking to challenge significant elements of the Secretary's listing decision.

The goal here is not necessarily to be the first to litigate but to bring all of the state's legal and analytic resources to bear in order to ensure ultimate victory on the issues of importance to the people of Alaska. So, once litigation has begun, I will direct that the Department of Law and all other state agencies with relevant expertise contribute their resources to the effort. . . .
It's not exactly clear what she means, but from past statements I'm assuming she wants to support Dirk Kempthorne's limitations on the impacts of the listing rather than the conservation groups' initiatives.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

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Anonymous said...

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