Court gives polar bears partial win

By Bobby Caina Calvan, Globe Staff

October 17, 2011

1 minute to read

WASHINGTON – A federal judge today said the Bush administration erred when it excluded the impact of greenhouse gases in deciding the extent of protection for polar bears. The ruling prompted Massachusetts Representative Ed Markey to call on the Obama administration to launch a review.

U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan of the District of Columbia issued a split decision on the latest battle over polar bears, handing environmentalists a victory but also affirming the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s discretion on how far it will go to protect threatened species.

Still, environmentalists saw Monday’s ruling as a victory.

“This shows that it is an unacceptable practice for the government to freeze out science and environmental review,’’ said Markey, the senior Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.

In 2008, Markey introduced legislation that would have delayed drilling in Alaska’s wilderness until the federal government could decide on the endangered status of the polar bear.

The judge also allowed a ban on polar bears hunted for sport to be imported into the United States. “Whether it’s a bullet from the barrel of a gun or pollution from a smokestack, polar bears have been under attack for too long,’’ Markey said in a statement released by his office.

Earlier this year, the same judge upheld the government’s decision in 2008 to list the polar bear as threatened – instead of endangered, which would have accorded the species greater protections under the Endangered Species Act.