The Fish and Wildlife Service revised the rules Wednesday governing how much Arctic oil drilling can hassle the Beaufort Sea’s polar bears.
Pressed by litigation and an appellate court’s order, the federal agency updated the regulation that authorizes the oil and gas industry’s unintentional harassment of polar bears protected by the Marine Mammal Protection Act.
The new rules allow for more serious harassment than had previously been anticipated but don’t cover “lethal take” of the polar bears.
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The Alaska Oil and Gas Association, which requested the updated regulations, is “carefully reviewing” the final rule “to assess its consequences for AOGA’s members operating on the North Slope,” spokesperson Sarah Erkmann Ward said in a statement.
