Polar Bears and Global Warming

The Department of the Interior is considering a plan that will put our nation’s energy supply at risk.


At a time when gas costs more than $3 a gallon and a Congressional commission is proposing to increase the federal gas tax by 40 cents per gallon, the Administration wants to add polar bears to the list of “endangered” species, thereby putting an end to promising new oil and natural gas production in Alaska.

Even worse, the official reason given for doing this? Global warming.

Even though the number of polar bears has increased substantially from an estimated 9,000 in the 1960s to 22,500 today, the Department of the Interior speculates that global warming may someday reduce the amount of summer ice in the Arctic, thereby threatening the bears’ existence.

While the Endangered Species Act has proven to be a successful mechanism for violating private property rights and hampering the economic activities of farmers, ranchers, and loggers in the rural West and elsewhere, it has done little to actually protect species. In its decades-long existence, only a small percentage of the listed species has actually recovered or even shown any increase in numbers. It seems that the only impact of adding polar bears to the list will be to hinder energy development in Alaska.

The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) is estimated to contain 10 billion barrels of oil-nearly 15 years worth of current imports from Saudi Arabia. Listing bears as threatened would cut short any chance we have of developing this potential oil and gas resources there, thereby increasing energy prices and our reliance on foreign oil for decades to come.

We have sent our research papers on this issue to the President and members of Congress. As always, you too can alert your elected officials, the media and your friends and neighbors to the consequences of this sort of proposal.

Thank you as always for your support of The Heritage Foundation and conservative ideas.

Sincerely,


Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.D.
President