Described as the holy grail of Alaskan politics, the pipeline was a political coup for Palin.
She has stood up to the federal government, a politically popular posture in Alaska. In May, the state gave notice that it would sue the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to prevent the inclusion of the polar bear on the endangered species list as "threatened" as a consequence of shrinking Arctic ice caused by global warming.
Such a listing could be used to block drilling in the Arctic, which Palin supports.
Palin told federal officials that the state did a "comprehensive review" of the science and found no reason to support a listing. But an internal e-mail message from the head of the state Department of Fish and Game's marine mammals program and two other staff biologists agreed with the Department of Interior's conclusions that the science justified the listing. Palin did not publicly release the state's report.
"The governor's decision was clearly based on politics, not on science, and was primarily designed to protect the oil and gas industry stampede into the Arctic Ocean," said Steiner, the University of Alaska marine biologist.
--
julie.cart@latimes.com
