Published: May 17, 2008 09:40 am         

Other View: Polar bears barely protected

Under legal pressure, Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne officially -- and historically -- added the polar bear to the threatened-species list, the first time a species has made the list because of global warming. ... Even more remarkable was Kempthorne's blatant undercutting of his own decision with regulatory shenanigans that will almost certainly mean no new restrictions on carbon emissions ...(or) drilling for Alaskan oil.

Openly voicing disdain for the Endangered Species Act he's in charge of upholding, Kempthorne made it clear ... he couldn't avoid the listing ...

Kempthorne was right to say that the decision to list the bear was complicated. But it makes a mockery of the Endangered Species Act to declare the threat to the bear official, and then officially undermine it. ...

(I)f the Department of the Interior will not start the conversation about protection for its newest threatened species, Congress should.

Los Angeles Times