Judge: No More Time for Polar Bear Decision
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
A federal judge in Oakland, Calif., has ordered the Interior Department to decide by May 15 if the polar bear should be protected as an endangered species because of melting sea ice due to global warming. U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken decided, in a ruling released yesterday, that government failed to meet the deadline of January 9, a legal requirement under the Endangered Species Act. She dismissed the Bush administration’s plea to give it until June 30, saying officials offered “no specific facts that would justify the existing delay, much less further delay.” To give the administration more time, the judge wrote, “would violate the mandated listing deadlines under” the Endangered Species Act.
