While our elected leadership in Alaska continues to fight to unlock billions of barrels of job-creating energy that remains under de facto moratorium by the administration, the media elite in Washington continues to celebrate the “courage” of bureaucrats who go above and beyond the call of duty to put out “ambitious and innovative” research (with taxpayer resources) designed to make it more difficult for Alaskans to access their own energy.
The Washington Post, in its weekly ode-to-the-unappreciated-bureaucrat series, profiles how one such USGS staffer has worked relentlessly over the past few years to create a statutory justification for preventing the responsible development of energy – on the grounds that what’s good for Alaska’s economy is somehow inimical to the interests of Alaska’s wildlife.
For Leslie Holland-Bartels of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), the inclusion of Alaska’s polar bears as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act was a great accomplishment.
But the 2008 federal designation also signaled much more — the broader scientific linkage between global warming and significant changes to wildlife, critical ecosystems and biodiversity.
Following their discovery, many environmental groups wanted to use the polar bear findings as justification for stronger climate change rules. Although these proposals were rejected by President Bush and then by the Obama administration, the Interior department has proposed using the data to designate more than 200,000 square miles of land, sea and ice along the northern coast of Alaska as a critical polar bear habitat.
We all care about the well-being of our wildlife, our environment and our natural resources. There can and must be an appropriate balance to protect them all, while also ensuring that economic activity is not prevented in the process.
And that’s exactly what Gov. Sean Parnell is fighting for, as we’ve written about previously on this blog. He also understands that Alaska jobs and economic security cannot be compromised.
Dan Joling of the Associated Press quotes Parnell in a piece under the headline “Alaska fights to reverse polar bear listing:”
“We’re going to take every step we can to fight for Alaskan jobs and our economy,” he says.
And at the Resource Development Council’s 30th annual conference, Parnell told the crowd this (AUDIO):
“The Endangered Species Act is not a land-use planning tool and must not be used to complicate, delay, and ultimately halt energy exploration and production in Alaska,” Governor Parnell said. “We’ll take Alaska’s fight to the mat to make sure the ESA is used only to protect species threatened with extinction and not as a tool to lock up our land.”
