That didn't take long

The feds determine the polar bear to be an endangered species a couple of months ago and here come the lawsuits.

Two conservation groups have given the federal government formal notice they intend to sue to protect polar bears from petroleum exploration and drilling off Alaska's coast.

The Center for Biological Diversity and Pacific Environment said Monday they will sue under the Endangered Species Act to protect polar bears, which were listed as threatened last month by Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne.

Polar bears are threatened -- likely to become endangered -- because their sea ice habitat has melted dramatically and computer models predict further losses, Kempthorne said. Summer sea ice last year shrunk to about 1.65 million square miles, nearly 40 percent less than the long-term average between 1979 and 2000.

However, Kempthorne said, the best scientific judgments did not conclude that polar bears were threatened by oil and gas development.

The conservation groups do not agree.

Whit Sheard, of Pacific Environment in Alaska, said Bush administration officials have been so keen to grant offshore leases, they have not given proper consideration to the potential harm to polar bears.