Fish and Wildlife Service told a U.S. District Court judge Wednesday that the threatened designation will not change because polar bears were not considered to be in danger of extinction at the time of the listing in 2008. There was never any indication from the government that it planned to change its position, although environmental groups challenging the listing, including the Center for Biological Diversity, had hoped that it would. The Obama administration reaffirmed Wednesday its decision to designate polar bears as a "threatened," not "endangered," species, in defiance of the wishes of conservationists who say the bears are in danger of extinction because their arctic hunting grounds are melting. "The Service explained how its biologists had concluded in 2008 that the polar bear was not facing sudden and catastrophic threats [and] was still a widespread species that had not been restricted to a critically small range or critically low numbers," the agency said in a statement. The polar bear does "face a serious threat" and is "likely to become an endangered species in the foreseeable future," the government concedes. Threatened species receive most of the same regulatory protections as those listed under the Endangered Species Act, including a requirement that federal agencies refrain from actions that might jeopardize their existence or destroy or harm their habitat. Andrew Wetzler, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council, conceded he hadn't expected the government to change its position, but he said it was a lost opportunity for the administration. Copyright 2010 E&E; Publishing. "It's a wasted opportunity to do the right thing," Siegel said.
– Not everybody's heaping praise on the Obama administration this week: Environmentalists are fuming that the Fish and Wildlife Service decided not to ramp up protection of polar bears by changing their status from "threatened" to "endangered." In response to a court deadline, the agency said yesterday that the bears are indeed at risk, just not the imminent risk the "endangered" label requires, reports the Washington Post. "I guess if a wrecking ball is barreling down on your house, you are just 'threatened,'" Andrew Wetzler of the Natural Resources Defense Council told AFP. The heightened status could have created a regulatory mess by requiring the Obama administration to curb greenhouse gas emissions, notes the New York Times. Click here to read about fears that climate change could create a new polar-grizzly beast.