Polar bears are in limbo; while their natural habitat’s melting away, our government is debating whether or not global warming has, in fact, turned them into an endangered species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is required by Federal law to make its decision by tomorrow, which marks a year since the agency first proposed listing the polar bear as threatened.

But, as the San Francisco Chronicle reports today, the Bush administration announced on Monday that it can’t meet the deadline, and may need another month. Should the agency decide the polar bear merits protection, it will pose a huge setback to the oil and gas companies who are drooling over the prospect of drilling in Alaska.

And, as luck would have it, there’s a first-time oil lease sale scheduled for Feb. 6 in Alaska’s pristine Chukchi Sea, which, the Chronicle notes, “provides one-tenth of the habitat for the world’s polar bears.”

So it looks like the sale of the oil lease will go forward while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service dithers about the polar bears till, oh, just after February 6th. Coincidence, or just another case of craven pandering to the carbon cabal?