Published on Sunday, June 15, 2008 by Associated Press
Oil Companies Get OK To Annoy Bears by Dina Cappiello
WASHINGTON – Less than a month after declaring polar bears a threatened species because of global warming, the Bush administration is giving oil companies permission to annoy and potentially harm them in the pursuit of oil and natural gas.
The Fish and Wildlife Service issued regulations last week providing legal protection to seven oil companies planning to search for oil and gas in the Chukchi Sea off the northwestern coast of Alaska if small numbers of polar bears or Pacific walruses are incidentally harmed by their activities over the next five years.