A group of states responsible for almost a third of the domestic energy production have joined forces to assert their rights to manage their own resources and environment. The Energy Producing States Committee officially launched Thursday in inauspicious fashion, as about two dozen legislators, energy company representatives and government staffers met in a small conference room in a downtown Salt Lake City hotel. During the first of two days of meetings, the members hammered out their mission statement and heard presentations on the future of American fossil fuels, renewable energies and nuclear power.
Republican Don Young said in a prepared statement that listing an animal as threatened despite its increasing populations is absurd and "incredibly irresponsible."
Polar bears were listed in 2008 by Dirk Kempthorne, an Interior secretary under then-President George W. Bush, because of an alarming loss of summer sea ice in recent decades and climate models that indicate the trend will continue.
Polar bears use sea ice to hunt ringed seals and other prey.
Listing advocates say polar bear numbers rebounded after hunting restrictions were put in place but the greater threat is habitat loss. Four years ago, federal researchers reported that two-thirds of the world's polar bear habitat could vanish by mid-century.