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  Administration Has Two Weeks to Make Polar Bear Decision
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ContributorArmyDem 
Last EditedArmyDem  Apr 30, 2008 09:07am
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MediaNewspaper - Washington Post
News DateWednesday, April 30, 2008 03:00:00 PM UTC0:0
DescriptionBy Juliet Eilperin
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, April 30, 2008; Page A02

A federal judge in California has ordered the Bush administration to decide by May 15 whether the polar bear deserves protection under the Endangered Species Act.

The decision, issued late Monday by U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken, requires the Interior Department to reach a conclusion on whether climate change is pushing polar bears toward extinction. The agency proposed adding polar bears to its list in December 2006 because higher temperatures are shrinking the sea ice they depend on for survival, but officials have delayed a final decision on the matter for months.

After Interior missed its own Jan. 9 deadline, three environmental advocacy groups -- the Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace -- sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and the Fish and Wildlife Service in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

In a recent filing in the case, Kempthorne proposed making a final decision by June 30. But the judge rejected that timetable, writing: "Defendants offer no specific facts that would justify the existing delay, much less further delay. To allow Defendants more time would violate the mandated listing deadlines under the [act] and congressional intent that time is of the essence in listing threatened species."
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