US government conducts integrity inquiry on federal biologist amid lobbying by oil firms for Arctic permits
But now the government scientist who first warned of the threat to polar bears in a warming Arctic has been suspended and his work put under official investigation for possible scientific misconduct.
Charles Monnett, a wildlife biologist, oversaw much of the scientific work for the government agency that has been examining drilling in the Arctic. He managed about $50m (£30.5m) in research projects.
Some question why Monnett, employed by the US Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement, has been suspended at this moment. The Obama administration has been accused of hounding the scientist so it can open up the fragile region to drilling by Shell and other big oil companies.
Monnett was the scientist who in 2004 along with his colleagues, spotted four dead polar bears floating in the water after a storm, he and the other scientists concluded that the bears, typically strong swimmers, had drowned due to exhaustion from swimming the long distances between patches of solid ice. That became the first time scientists had drawn a link between melting Arctic ice and a bears' survival.
Two years later, Monnett and a colleague published an article in the science journal Polar Biology, writing: "Drowning-related deaths of polar bears may increase in the future if the observed trend of regression of pack ice and/or longer open water periods continues."
The paper quickly increased concern for the polar bear, and was cited by Al Gore in his film "An Inconvenient Truth" In 2008, the US government designated the animal a threatened species.
In 2010 the Obama administration began an investigation into his work. The scientist was suspended with pay on 18 July. He is said to be under a gagging order and forbidden from communicating with his colleagues. The employee group's complaint alleges that the investigation is a thinly veiled attempt to disrupt scientific work on the Arctic.
Oil firms, which want to drill in the pristine environment of the Chukchi and Beaufort seas, have been complaining of delays caused by environmental reviews. This month Obama issued an order to speed up Arctic drilling permits.