Six weeks before Democratic President-elect Barack Obama takes office, the Bush administration is changing the regulations for endangered animals and plants. Environmentalists disagree with President Bush’s decision to change the regulations of the Endangered Species Act.

The Interior Department on Thursday has issued the “revised” regulations designed to shield federal projects from review under the Endangered Species Act. This will most certainly increase the commercial development but the changes could affect the protection of wildlife, according to some environmentalists. Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne said the purpose of the rules was to ensure that the 1972 law was not used as a “back door” means of regulating the emission of the gases that accelerate climate change. He sees the proposed law as a “narrow regulatory change” that makes the consultation process under the Endangered Species Act clearer.

As an example, he argued that the decision to list the polar bear as threatened because of the reduction of the ice surface which could lead to losing their habitat could be used to block projects far from the polar bear’s Arctic habitat. But the polar bear is directly threatened by the global warming process which melts the sea ice - the polar bear’s natural habitat and the surface which the bear uses to haunt his pray, seals. The loss of the sea ice would make it almost impossible for polar bears not to die from starvation.

The new rules, which will take effect in about 30 days, would prohibit federal agencies from assessing how a proposed project would add to global warming or jeopardize species’ habitat.

The Bush Administration says that polar bears are the subject of a “special rule,” which allows oil and gas drilling, as long as oil companies obey the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Environmental groups, including the Center for Biological Diversity, Greenpeace and Defenders of Wildlife, filed suit in federal court to block the “revised” regulations. The National Wildlife Federation says the measure eliminates “key protections that have helped safeguard and recover endangered fish, wildlife and plants for the past 35 years.”

The current law requires agencies to subject any plans that may affect endangered animals and plants to a review by the Fish and Wildlife Service or the National Marine Fisheries Service. Environmentalist group leaders said the new measure would eliminate protections for threatened animals and plants.

The Endangered Species Act was designed to protect threatened species from extinction as a “consequence of economic growth and development untendered by adequate concern and conservation.” The purpose of the act is to protect species and the ecosystems upon which they depend.

President-elect Barack Obama said he would work to reverse these changes, but his administration would have follow the standard procedure and to reopen the rulemaking process.

A report released last year by the U.S. Geological Survey has shown that the world’s population of polar bears risked severe decimation within the following decades due to global warming. By 2050, polar bears could disappear completely from Alaska, the study forecasted.