Anchorage Daily News

WASHINGTON -- Postponing the sale of oil and gas leases in the Chukchi Sea to consider polar bear habitat could do irreparable harm to Alaska's economy, U.S. Rep. Don Young warned Wednesday in a letter.

The Alaska Republican told the chairman of a House global warming committee, Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass, that it's imperative for national energy security that the sales go forward next month.

"The choice for Americans is simple: do we want to send $3 trillion to foreigners, or get off our duffs and use our own energy and keep the money here at home?" Young wrote.

Young also told Markey that he is "afraid that the people of Massachusetts will continue to suffer from an economy battered by higher energy prices and our increasing dependence on unreliable foreign sources for our energy supplies."

"The energy in Alaska you oppose would fill all of the needs of the people of your state for about 279 years, and create hundreds of thousands of American jobs and billions of dollars in royalties and taxes -- instead of being replaced by foreign oil and foreign jobs," Young said.

Markey's response had the same tongue-in-cheek tone as Young's letter.

"The people of Massachusetts are flattered by the attention to their welfare given by the distinguished gentleman from Alaska," Markey said in a statement. "It is only fair that I reciprocate by continuing to fight to protect the polar bear, an icon of the Arctic, that is one of the reasons that Alaska is so special to all Americans."

Markey filed legislation last week asking the Interior Department to hold off on the Chukchi lease sale, scheduled for Feb. 6, until it had determined whether to list polar bears as threatened under the endangered species act.

Markey also held a hearing last week questioning why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service postponed its decision whether to list polar bears until after the Feb. 6 oil and gas lease sale by the Minerals Management Service. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne oversees both Fish and Wildlife and Minerals Management.

STEVENS, MURKOWSKI OPPOSE LISTING

The state's congressional delegation is unified in its opposition to listing polar bears as threatened. Sen. Lisa Murkowski has spoken personally to Kempthorne to raise her objections, said spokesman Kevin Sweeney. And Sen. Ted Stevens "has real concerns about the listing of polar bears," spokesman Aaron Saunders said. Specifically, the senator is worried about the effect on future oil and gas development, Saunders said.

If the Bush administration classifies the polar bears as threatened, they would be the first species to make the list based on loss of habitat from the effects of global warming. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey estimate that the shrinking sea ice habitat of the bears could lead to a loss of two-thirds of their population by mid-century.

The Interior Department hasn't reviewed Markey's bill or taken a position on it, said spokesman Chris Paolino. Environmentalist have questioned the timing of the leases and the polar bear decision, but the Interior Department continues to maintain that one has nothing to do with the other. Scientists with the U.S. Geological Survey have said that restricting oil and gas development or the subsistence hunting of polar bears would not be enough to prevent population declines.

"We don't intend to change the timetable of the lease," Paolino said.

Dale Hall, the director of the Fish and Wildlife Service, is expected to testify again on the issue next week in front of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.

Find Erika Bolstad online at adn.com/contact/ebolstad or call her in Washington, D.C., at 202-383-6104.

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