The Bush administration’s sell-off of leases for oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s polar-bear-harboring Chukchi Sea raised a lot of controversy — and a lot of moola. The sale brought in a record $2.66 billion in bidding, well beyond the $67 million the feds had expected and budgeted for. Royal Dutch Shell was the big winner, with the highest bid for a single tract; the polar bear, which is awaiting a decision on its endangered status, is likely the big loser. However, drilling won’t commence in the area for at least a decade, so maybe there won’t be any polar bears left anyway. Protesters gathered outside the Anchorage library where the sale was being conducted; said Inupiat subsistence hunter Earl Kingik, “I wish I could have money so I could bid myself to save my ocean.”
