A federal judge ordered the Obama administration to undertake an environmental review of a special polar bear rule that was issued during the Bush era.
In May 2008, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the bear as "threatened" under the Endangered Species Act. A special rule was issued in December 2008 that said the agency didn't have to consider the impact of greenhouse gases on the animal's habitat.
Judge Emmet Sullivan, however, said the agency was within its discretion under the ESA to make that determination.
"[A]s this court has previously observed, climate change poses unprecedented challenges of science and policy on a global scale, and this court must be at its most deferential where the agency is operating at the frontiers of science," he wrote.
But Sullivan also said the Bush administration failed to explain why it didn't prepare an environmental impact statement for the special rule. He ordered the FWS to conduct an "initial assessment" under the National Environmental Policy Act.
"Here, the Service conducted no analysis whatsoever; as a result, its Special Rule for the polar bear violates NEPA," Sullivan said.
"Today’s decision squarely places the fate of the polar bear back in the hands of the Obama administration. Rather than continue to defend an ill-conceived Bush-era rule, the Obama administration should take this opportunity to carefully craft a new rule that meaningfully addresses greenhouse gas emissions, the primary threat to the polar bear,” Brendan Cummings of the Center for Biological Diversity said in a
press release.
Get the Story:
Judge orders more environmental review of global warming’s threat to polar bears
(AP 10/17)
Polar bears and greenhouse gases: Can one live with the other?
(The Los Angeles Times 10/18)
District Court Decisions:
IN RE: POLAR BEAR ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT LISTING AND 4(d) RULE LITIGATION |
IN RE: POLAR BEAR ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT LISTING AND 4(d) RULE LITIGATION
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