Polar Bears Can't be Used to Justify Carbon Bans - Federal Judge

"It's not my fault, Really!"

Judge delivers 'bittersweet' polar bear ruling

In a ruling that both environmentalists and Alaska Rep. Don Young can applaud, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan threw out a key section of an Interior Department rule that declared global warming is threatening the survival of the polar bear, making regulations of greenhouse gases mandatory.

Sullivan said that Fish and Wildlife Service failed to conduct a proper environmental review when creating the protections for the polar bear. The agency must now go back and conduct an environmental assessment of the outcome of the rule, and consider other options.

In other words, according to Politico, “the Obama administration can’t be forced to use endangered species law to regulate greenhouse gases . . . but it can’t ignore the idea either.”

Politico quotes the judge as writing the following:

The question at the heart of this litigation — whether the ESA is an effective or appropriate tool to address the threat of climate change — is not a question that this court can decide based upon its own independent assessment, particularly in the abstract. The answer to that question will ultimately be grounded in science and policy determinations that are beyond the purview of this court.

I think this ruling always was kind of a long shot, hoping a federal judge would be compliant to AGW proponents wildest fantasies, and not looking for any factors, like the fact that the Polar Bear population is currently doing better than anytime in known history.