On Thin Ice: The Future of the Polar Bear - Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming - 2008-01-17 - Chairman Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) of the Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming questioned members of the Bush Administration regarding the delay of a decision to list polar bears under the Endangered Species Act until after a controversial lease sale for oil drilling off of Alaska. The hearing also featured experts on wildlife protection and oil drilling. Earlier this month (Jan 2008), the Interior Department announced it would miss the statutory deadline to reach a decision on listing the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), saying it would take up to a month more to reach the decision. That would put the listing decision one day after the sale of oil drilling rights in Alaska's Chukchi Sea, scheduled for February 6th. The Chukchi Sea is a sensitive polar bear habitat. In the most thorough study to date, the Interior Department determined that under current trends, disappearing sea ice would result in a two-thirds drop in the world population of polar bears resulting in the disappearance of polar bears from Alaska by 2050. PANEL I: Mr. Dale Hall, Director, Fish and Wildlife Service; Mr. Randall Luthi, Director, Minerals Management Service; Dr. Steven Amstrup, Polar Bear Team Leader, U.S. Geological Survey. PANEL II: Ms. Jamie Rappaport Clark, Executive Vice President, Defenders of Wildlife; Ms. Deborah Williams, President, Alaska Conservation Solutions; Ms. Kassie Siegel, Director, Climate, Air and Energy Program, Center for Biological Diversity. Video provided by the U.S. House of Representatives.