Leaving Polar Bears Out in the Cold

In January, Sarah Palin wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece, "[polar bears] are worthy of our utmost efforts to protect them and their Arctic habitat. But adding polar bears to the nation's list of endangered species, as some are now proposing, should not be part of those efforts." In May, the Alaskan governor opposed the Interior Department's listing the polar bear as threatened, and prompted the ire of environmentalists and animal rights activists. In August, Palin, who has long advocated opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling, rallied her fellow Alaskan officials to sue Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, arguing that extending protection to the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act is unwarranted and will hinder Alaska's gas industry and offshore drilling development.