Bears AND oil in troubled waters

The U.S. government has decided to being leasing some more undersea land to petroleum companies. This will be beneath the Chukchi Sea off the northwestern coast of Alaska. No drilling will be allowed within fifty miles of the actual coastline. Out of sight, if not out of mind. Bidding on these new leases will be February 6. It's expected that a rich natural gas and oil field will be exploited as a result.

Opposition to the leases comes from environmental groups. One of the two largest U.S. polar bear populations lives in that region. And one critic pointed out nobody has any idea how to deal with an oil spill on broken ice.