Noelle Straub, Greenwire reporter
Much has been made of Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s stance on oil and gas development, but the Alaska governor has a record on other environmental issues that has drawn fire from many advocacy groups and Interior Department officials.
Palin opposes Interior’s listing of polar bears and beluga whales under the Endangered Species Act, saying it would harm energy development and the economy. She has promoted the state’s shooting of predators, including wolves and bears, from airplanes. She does not dispute that the earth is warming and has appointed a climate-change subcabinet, but she questions whether humans have caused the effects. She did win kudos from environmentalists, however, for her handling of the state’s Division of Habitat.
Last month, Palin sued Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne for his decision to list the polar bear. In an op-ed in the New York Times in January, Palin wrote that there is insufficient evidence that polar bears are in danger of becoming extinct within the foreseeable future. Her decision to file the lawsuit, she said, was based on a “comprehensive review by state wildlife officials of scientific information from a broad range of climate, ice and polar bear experts.”
But e-mails obtained through a public records request by a University of Alaska scientist show that the head of the marine mammals program for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and two other biologists on his staff agreed with the conclusions of nine studies the federal government cited to justify listing the bears.
Palin’s administration relied in part on research from scientists funded by the oil industry to oppose the listing.
In May, Palin did not veto $2 million that state lawmakers wanted for a conference that would highlight arguments from scientists that global warming isn’t threatening the survival of polar bears and that would then distribute the information to the public. Palin didn’t think she could veto it because it was a “reappropriation” of money left from another project, the Anchorage Daily News reported, but she didn’t support the conference and wanted the money to be used for the state’s lawsuit against the polar bear listing.
Palin also has opposed listing the beluga whale, saying it could cause serious long-term damage to the area’s economy.
“I am especially concerned that an unnecessary federal listing and designation of critical habitat would do serious long-term damage to the vibrant economy of the Cook Inlet area,” Palin said in a 2007 statement. Major proposed projects included a large coal mine across Cook Inlet from Anchorage and bridge construction.
Palin last year appointed a subcabinet to address climate change issues.
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