On the surface it sounds good, but in reality little will change. Plans to drill for oil in arctic waters will continue. Nothing to mitigate global warming will be done. It will be business as usual.
Strictly speaking, Kempthorne and Interior followed the recent order by a federal judge requiring a decision regarding the polar bear be made by May 15. This they did with a totally toothless token designation that, without strong and aggressive policy changes, will do the bear little more good than no decision at all. The real winner here, as expected, is the oil industry. Hopefully challenges to the loopholes in this ruling are forthcoming. I'll be watching.
Update on Arctic leases: Federal agencies have been rubber stamping permits with no requirement for environmental monitoring in order to speed things up for the short open water season. From a PEER news release:
In essence, our federal agencies are saying to the oil companies, 'don’t worry about monitoring what you do, we trust you,' stated PEER Executive Director Jeff Ruch, noting the agencies still lack any capability to determine the effects of seismic and other exploratory activities on threatened wildlife, including the newly listed polar bear. "Standing orders in Alaska are that no permit may be delayed, let alone denied, regardless of the reason".
Great. Just great.
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