Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (R) will sue the Interior Department over its decision to list the polar bear as a threatened species. “We believe that the listing was unwarranted and that it’s unprecedented to list a currently healthy population based on uncertain climate models,” says Alaska Assistant Attorney General Steven Daugherty. To green groups, that argument is, shall we say, unimpressive. “Even the Bush administration can’t deny the reality of global warming,” says Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity. “The governor is aligning herself and the state of Alaska with the most discredited, fringe, extreme viewpoints by denying this.” Palin’s litigation comes mainly out of fear for Alaska’s fossil-fuel-reliant economy, even though the wording of the Interior Department decision went to great lengths to ward off any new restrictions on oil and gas drilling.
