Yesterday I posted a story about the Pebble Partnership and how it bought off Ken Taylor, a deputy commissioner for the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, with a cushy vice presidential gig at the partnership. It turns out that Mr. Taylor has never been particularly 'keen' on protecting the environment - which makes him an odd choice to work at the fish & game department, but I digress.
Here's an article about his involvement with the polar bear debate during his time as a state official published in January of this year in the Anchorage Daily News,
But Taylor, the Palin administration's point man on polar bears, argues that the scientific justification simply isn't there -- at least not yet -- to declare the polar bear "threatened" and touch off a cascade of effects under the Endangered Species Act. A decision on the bears is expected from the U.S. Department of the Interior in the next few weeks.
"From my perspective, it's very difficult to put a population on the list that's healthy, based on a projection 45 years into the future," Taylor says. "That's really stretching scientific credibility."
If he doesn't want to look out for polar bears, can we expect him to give flying fig about salmon?
1 comment:
I understand where you are coming from, but I agree with his statement on Polar Bears. He would only be exploiting the ESA for the bears when they aren't even threatened yet. It was just projected based on global warming and other nonsense that the Polar Bears would decline in the coming years. Based on recent projections, the Polar Bears are not at risk and using government money to protect them would only take money away from other animals that need it. But on the issue of Pebble Mine, someone in that Palin administration needs to step up and stop trying to avoid the questions. Support something that is worth the effort. Pebble Mine will never bring in a large enough profit for Alaska that could make up for the loss of the Bristol Bay watershed and all that it supports.
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