Issues

Western Energy Alliance Sends Letter to Sec. Jewell on Greater Sage-Grouse (GSG). This week, the Western Energy Alliance sent a letter to Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Sally Jewell regarding the proposed listing of the Greater sage-grouse under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA). The letter highlights, among other items, concerns surrounding two seintific documents distributed by the DOI regarding the GSG. These documents include A Report on National Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Measures by the National Technical Team (NTT Report) and the Greater Sage-Grouse Conservation Objectives Final Report (COT Report). According to the letter:

“Many of the reports relied upon to justify onerous management prescriptions for GSG have been prepared by a small group of interested and well-funded personnel that often co-author papers together and review one another’s work, thereby failing to meet the most basic of scientific standards.

“…The Alliance has a real interest in ensuring documents like the NTT and COT Reports: (1) represent the best available science and adhere to high standards of quality, objectivity, transparency and integrity under presidential and DOI memoranda and orders and the Data Quality Act; (2) comport with the agencies’ statutory multiple-use mandates and preserve valid existing rights; and (3) adequately consider the extensive state and local GSG conservation efforts already in place.”

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released three proposed plans to protect the GSG on November 1st, 2013. The plan includes Utah, Idaho, and Nevada along with parts of California and Montana. The public has 90 days to submit comment.

Federal Legislation Introduced on the Endangered Species Act. This week, Senators Rand Paul (R-KY), Dean Heller (R-NV) and Rep. Mark Amodei (NV-2) introduced the Endangered Species Management Self-Determination Act, a bill focused on providing state governors the power to regulate intrastate endangered species and intrastate threatened species.

According to Senator Paul, the bill is an important step in ensuring better protection of endangered species:

“This bill will better protect endangered species by allowing a more tailored response as implemented by the states. The Endangered Species Management Self-Determination Act ensures that local needs will be considered in the regulation process and places the decision-making into the hands of the states by allowing them to choose whether regulation occurs on the state or federal level.”

Senator Heller also noted that protecting the environment and protecting the economy can go hand in hand:

“We have a responsibility to be good stewards of wildlife and the habitat that they rely on.  In Nevada, we have been working hard to protect both the sage grouse and our economy, which is why I am working hard with the Governor, the delegation, and Nevadans to prevent a listing for the bird.”

Congressman Amodei also emphasized the important role of increasing Gubernatorial flexibility in protecting endangered species.

“Giving governors greater flexibility would go a long way mitigating the one-size-fits-all impact of the ESA, which is threatening to shutdown vast swatches of the American West, including Nevada. Governor Brian Sandoval has met the challenge posed by the looming sage grouse listing and that kind of leadership deserves respect from federal land managers.”

Congressman Amodei also urged his constituents this week to engage in two public comment periods regarding a proposed listing of the bi-state sage grouse and the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Greater sage-grouse. His full comments are available on his website HERE.

In the News

Sage Grouse Rules Pose Problems for County Government, Business. Big Sky Business Journal. In an effort to prevent the listing of Sage Grouse as an endangered species, political leaders in the state are scrambling to establish their own management plan that will help preserve species habitat, while still allowing some economic development. In that effort, six months ago, Governor Steve Bullock appointed the Greater Sage Grouse Habitat Conservation Advisory Council to draft a strategy. The Council’s proposal is now available for public scrutiny and is the subject of seven public meetings throughout the state.

Agency again approves Kinder Morgan’s Ruby Pipeline. Associated Press. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled in the groups’ favor in October 2012, concluding that BLM and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service hadn’t done enough to ensure protection of the threatened Lahontan cutthroat trout and other rare fish in Wyoming, northern Utah, northern Nevada and southern Oregon. It also agreed with their claims the agency had failed to provide enough information about the cumulative loss of sagebrush habitat that the sage grouse and other species depend upon in the Great Basin and high desert.

Interior listed 81 plants and animals in past year, reducing backlog. E&E News (sub req’d). The Interior Department over the past year listed 81 species as endangered or threatened, reducing its backlog of imperiled candidate species to fewer than 150 for the first time since the 1970s, according to a federal report. The new listing decisions, many of them compelled by a legal settlement with environmental groups, leave just 146 species on the candidate list: 94 animals and 52 plants.

Gov. John Hickenlooper to visit Craig. Steamboat Today. Moffat County Commissioners joined other counties Oct. 31 in officially requesting Hickenlooper take part in conversations about sage grouse habitats and the Bureau of Land Management’s Environmental Impact Statement that would limit the use of certain habitats, according to a statement put out by Scott McInnis, executive director of the Associated Governments of Northwest Colorado.

Utah legislator proposes state defense fund against environmentalists. Standard-Examiner. Sen. David Hinkins, R-Orangeville, said he will run legislation during the 2014 session that would create an environmental defense fund in anticipation of looming court fights with environmentalists. He anticipates conflict over sage grouse, as well as the beardtongue flower, which grows over oil shale areas and which some claim may be put on the protected species list — potentially shutting down access to the oil shale.

Bingham wind project review on hold. Morning Sentinel. First Wind is working to address the concerns of the department regarding the protection of bat habitats, a spokesman said in an email on Monday. “We remain hopeful the DEP will complete its review in an expeditious manner so that the region can realize the positive economic and environmental impacts of the Bingham project,” said First Wind spokesman John Lamontagne in an email Monday.