The backsliding of Team 44 continues, as Interior Secretary Ken Salazar decided to leave in place a Regime era rule which prohibits using the Endangered Species Act to regulate greenhouse warming that is melting the polar bears' Arctic marine habitat. The Secretary said the potential loss of the polar bear is an "environmental tragedy of the modern age" but agreed with former Secretary Dirk Kempthorne that the Endangered Species Act was never intended to regulate global climate change. The Act was intended to regulate human impacts on species threatened with extinction. Polar bears, which rely on sea ice from which to hunt for seals, is severely impacted by the rapidly shrinking Arctic ice cap. Environmentalists see Salazar's position as an overly narrow interpretation, and inconsistent with the decision to rescind the Regime's policy of barring consideration of global warming impacts on endangered species in general. The NRDC and other organizations filed suit last May to challenge the 4(d) rule. Andrew Wetzler, director of NRDC's Wildlife Conservation Program said the legal action will go ahead. Salazar, according to the environmental news service ENS, agrees the bear is threatened by global warming, but says a comprehensive energy and climate strategy that ameliorates climate change is the proper course of action. Salazar said, "Both President Obama and I are committed to achieving that goal." He was unpersuaded by the thousands of requests to rescind the 4(d) rule. Salazar pointed out that the administration's budget request included an increase of $7.4 million for polar bear conservation, and that the great bear is also protected by the Marine Mammal Act and the international CITIES treaty. His decision was welcomed by the petroleum industry, but criticized by Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA), who chairs the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. Help NRDC overturn the rule that is helping destroy the polar bear's Arctic home.[photo: Canadian Ice Service]