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 30^th 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.”

Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell knows the polar bear, loves the polar bear,  but “doesn’t intend to let the federal government’s expanded protection for bears get in the way of the state’s continued prosperity.”

Parnell, just months into the helm as the state’s chief executive, continues to fight tirelessly for increased access to homegrown, job-creating Alaskan energy. On the heels of recent column on the subject in the Wall Street Journal and following a host of meetings with key officials with Washington, urging the federal government to unlock Alaska’s enormous amounts of job-creating energy reserves, Gov. Parnell is not relenting in his fight for prosperity, economic growth and energy security.

And don’t think for a minute that a frivolous environmentalist lawsuit will throw him of course.

The article – written by the AP’s Anchorage correspondent, Dan Joling – quotes Parnell:

“Currently some are attempting to improperly use the Endangered Species Act to shut down resource development,” Parnell says. “I’m not going to let this happen on my watch.”

As Alaska North Slope wells dry up, the state is turning to potential offshore discoveries to refill the trans-Alaska pipeline and ensure the long-term prospects of a $26 billion proposed natural gas pipeline. Protections for polar bears under the Endangered Species Act could thwart that, Parnell says, adding that they’re not needed.

“Alaskans have an excellent track record of both developing our natural resources and protecting our wildlife,” says Parnell, who replaced Palin when she resigned in late July.

Joling’s pieces notes that “The stakes are high for Alaska”:

The stakes are high for Alaska. About 90 percent of Alaska’s general fund revenue budget is fueled by the petroleum industry. The trans-Alaska pipeline is running at less than one-third capacity and only high oil prices and a new method of taxing oil production have kept Alaska from slashing government services or looking for other revenue sources, such as a state income tax.

In a decade or so, offshore gas production could be crucial for a new large-diameter pipeline, a project for which Parnell’s revenue commissioner says there is no future alternative.

Questioned about the cost of fighting the federal government over the listing, Parnell says the cost of doing nothing was far greater.

“We’re going to take every step we can to fight for Alaskan jobs and our economy,” he says.

With unemployment at a 26 year high, and our deep and dangerous dependence on foreign energy supplies compounding by the day, leaders like Gov. Parnell are committed to increasing access to homegrown energy that will help stabilize energy costs across the board. Expanded, 21^st century offshore energy production will create good-paying jobs and much needed economic activity. Why, again, is Secretary Salazar slow-walking the offshore development process?