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Rep. Brad Miller was one of the relatively few people from North Carolina who didn't have to say "Sarah who?" when the governor of Alaska was named the Republican vice presidential candidate.

Sarah Palin had blasted the N.C. Democrat in a 2007 letter, criticizing Miller for his role in a debate that starts with whether to classify polar bears as an endangered species and sprawls into the complex topics of climate change and drilling for oil in Alaska.

"This is really about the legitimacy of science," Miller said recently.

Not in dispute is that the polar ice shelf, the polar bear's habitat, is shrinking.

And according to Interior Department findings, the dwindling range qualifies the bear for "threatened" status, a step shy of "endangered" and a warning that action is needed to reverse the animal's decline. But the state of Alaska, along with the American Petroleum Institute, an oil industry trade group, and other business groups have sued to reverse that decision.

In earlier efforts to head off the "threatened" designation, the state relied on research funded by oil producer ExxonMobil.

Miller, who represents parts of Greensboro and Raleigh and is chairman of the House Science Subcommittee on Oversight, criticized the company for identifying and paying researchers who could be counted on to call climate-change theories into question.

"There is an overwhelming consensus of scientists who are screaming that the climate is changing and we need to do something," Miller said. He likens studies that raise doubts about climate change to science funded by tobacco companies in the 1960s and 1970s that tried to debunk the health consequences of smoking.

Exxon had promised to stop funding such studies, but after another surfaced in early 2007, Miller wrote to the company again asking them to stop the practice. That letter sparked a rebuke from Palin, dated Oct. 16, 2007.

"I fear your comments may squash informed scientific debate," Palin wrote. She continued later, "Those who advocate polar bear listing ... portray a direct relation between carbon and other emissions and the health of the polar bear population in an apparent effort to create new legal mechanisms for attacking emissions."

Palin does not discount climate change. In a recent interview with CBS' Katie Couric, she acknowledged the reality of climate change but said it "kind of doesn't matter at this point" whether it is man-made.

But the fight over the polar bear's designation - ongoing in at least two lawsuits - is at least in part a debate over whether the polar bear's status would require industries in Alaska and throughout the United States to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

A prime concern, according to industry statements, is that the designation could curtail oil exploration on Alaska's North Slope.

Miller said he never spoke to Palin after getting "a snippy little letter from her" but said her position differs from views expressed by Republican presidential nominee John McCain. McCain, Miller said, has strongly expressed views on climate change and scientific rigor.

Those views, Miller said, have either changed with the advent of the campaign or are at odds with his vice presidential pick.

A spokesman for the McCain-Palin campaign was asked about the pair's positions on global warming but was unable to furnish an on-the-record response. An issue brief at the McCain-Palin Web site says, "Climate Policy Should Be Built On Scientifically-Sound, Mandatory Emission Reduction Targets And Timetables."

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com