Oil companies given some immunity from harming polar bears
[youtube:www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKCeAIERyYI]
Bush Administration officials at the Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that the oil companies working on the Northwest Alaskan coast by the Chukchi Sea would be protected from liability if they accidentally harmed endanged polar bears or pacific walruses. This ruling applies to the seven oil companies that paid $2.6 billion in a government auction for the right to drill in this region. Ten percent of the polar bears in the arctic live in this area.
The Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision is not a blank check to harm the bears, as the oil companies will be required to study the location of the bears’ dens and train their employees on measures to protect the bears. In return, the companies will be protected if they unintentionally hurt a bear or walrus.
Apparently this is not the first time oil companies have been granted similar immunity-as they enjoyed this type of protection in the same region from 1991 to 1996. Additionally, no polar bear deaths have been attributed to oil company action in Alaska since 1993 and only two have been known to be have been killed since 1960.
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