It's turning into "Update on Bears Day" here at EnviroWonk.

You may recall how we told you in January about how the Fish and Wildlife Service missed a deadline on whether to declare the polar bear threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act. And you may remember how this move appeared to be suspiciously coordinated with a Minerals Management Service plan to open a large area of Alaska's Chukchi Sea to oil and gas leases.

At the time, a few environmental groups threatened to sue over the delay. Well, today they did just that. The Center for Biological Diversity, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Greenpeace have asked the federal court in San Francisco to order Interior Department officials to make the decision, which at this point is more than two months late.

Administration officials have blamed the delay on complexities arising from the fact that it's the first time climate change has been a factor in proposing a threatened status for any U.S. species. But the Interior Department's inspector general isn't buying it, and late last week launched a preliminary investigation into why it's been taking so long.

Asked by Reuters to respond to today's lawsuit, Interior spokesman Shane Wolf said -- apparently without irony -- that the department would respond "in a timely manner."