Issues
IPAA comments on rusty-patched bumble bee listing proposal. Last week, the Independent Petroleum Association of America – in conjunction with the American Petroleum Institute and American Exploration & Production Council – submitted comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service regarding the agency’s proposal to list the rusty-patched bumble bee (RPBB) under the Endangered Species Act.
In its comments, IPAA notes that the proposed listing relies on skewed datasets, an incomplete record of the RPBB’s population and range, and a failure to account for the assumptions and uncertainties stated in the Species Status Assessment Report. According to the comments, the Service also proposes to list the RPBB as endangered by a new standard of “overall viability,” a standard that is fundamentally different from the ESA’s official definition.
In order to address existing knowledge gaps and asses a number of unfinished studies by the USDA and other agencies, IPAA and its co-signers recommend that the Service extend the deadline for ruling on the proposal by six months. If the Service ultimately chooses to list the RPBB, the comments call for special measures to help protect the species without unduly restricting ongoing commercial activities in the region that have shown no marked impact on the bee’s population.
FWS proposes relisting the lesser prairie chicken. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced it will once again consider granting federal protection to the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act. As required by law, Fish and Wildlife will conduct a 12-month review of the species before again making a listing decision. The agency made the announcement Tuesday in response to a petition from WildEarth Guardians, Defenders of Wildlife, and Center for Biological Diversity, citing that the petition had substantial claims to justify further investigation.
Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-OK), a longtime opponent of listing the lesser prairie chicken, was disappointed the Service was considering the petition so soon after the bird was delisted this summer. “It is important that we let the multi-state conservation plan have time to work before bringing down the full force of the Endangered Species Act,” he said in a statement. “I am confident that the Trump administration is aware that state conservation is sufficient to protect the lesser prairie-chicken and I will work with the new administration to ensure local efforts are given the chance to work.”
The lesser prairie chicken was removed from the threatened list following a 2015 ruling from a federal judge overturning its initial listing in 2014. In September 2016, the Center for Biological Diversity and others petitioned to relist the bird, arguing a decline in its population.
Eighteen states file suit to challenge critical habitat designation. Eighteen states, led by Alabama, filed a lawsuit this week against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, National Marine Fisheries Service, the Secretary of the Interior, and the Secretary of Commerce challenging a new rule that expands the definition of critical habitats for endangered species. The lawsuit states that the rule unlawfully expands the government’s control over state lands, with Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange calling it an “overreach” of federal authority and stating that the new rule could allow the government to declare “desert land as critical habitat for fish.”
In February 2016, the Obama administration finalized updates to critical habitat rules for designation, finding both occupied and unoccupied habitats may now be considered for designation. IPAA and dozens of other oil and gas groups requested that the policy be withdrawn last year. As IPAA’s Dan Naatz said at the time, “The Fish and Wildlife Service’s re-interpretation of critical habitat and proposed expansion of authority is not supported by the ESA and is at odds with the intent of Congress that critical habitat be limited in scope and focus on the immediate survival needs of species.”
In the News
Bishop slams McCain on grouse rider as deal nears. E&E News (sub req’d). House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) expressed frustration with Senate Armed Services Chairman John McCain’s efforts to block sage grouse language from the defense authorization bill. Bishop said McCain “doesn’t understand” its importance. Members of the conference committee crafting a compromise National Defense Authorization Act say they are close to a deal on whether to keep language Bishop authored. It would allow states with greater sage grouse management plans to block federal ones. It would also prevent the Interior secretary from changing the bird’s conservation status until Sept. 30, 2026. McCain (R-Ariz.) has pushed back against the language this year, much like he did with a similar provision last year, saying the sage grouse is not related to the armed services. Now, Bishop is accusing McCain of being naive and ill-informed. “This is not an environmental rider, this is a military issue,” Bishop said yesterday. “If McCain says it is a rider, it’s because he doesn’t understand the issue. Which he clearly does not.”
Obama blueprint aims to cement his regulatory legacy. E&E News (sub req’d). The White House yesterday released its latest regulatory agenda, a sweeping plan for the remaining months of President Obama’s term. The Fish and Wildlife Service by next month plans to finalize a rule proposed last year to permit and mitigate accidental migratory bird kills from drilling pits, gas flares, power lines and communications towers. Other FWS rules the White House considers significant — such as critical habitat designations for the yellow-billed cuckoo and rufa red knot — are only in the proposed rule stage and are therefore unlikely to be finished before Trump takes office.
FWS aims to mitigate impacts on protected species, habitats. E&E News (sub req’d). The Fish and Wildlife Service today set a higher standard for permitting or funding projects, which will require developments to result in no net loss of protected animals, plants or habitats. The update was spurred by a broad presidential memorandum on mitigation that ordered federal land management agencies to streamline their regulations on mitigation and set a “net benefit goal” for natural resource use. In response to that memo, FWS has expanded its mitigation policy to specifically require land users for the first time to avoid, minimize and compensate for impacts to species or lands protected under the Endangered Species Act.
Scholars detect Chevron ‘half-step in D.C. Circuit. E&E News (sub req’d). Breaking with other courts, the federal appellate court in Washington, D.C., has been adding an intermediate layer of review to determine whether agencies receive deference under the Chevron legal doctrine, according to a new report. Recent litigation over the Endangered Species Act listing for the polar bear highlights the trend. In 2008, the Fish and Wildlife Service issued a rule determining that polar bears were threatened, and not endangered, under the statute. FWS acknowledged that shrinking sea ice may pose a danger to polar bears in the long run but determined that the danger was not imminent enough to warrant an endangered designation. The Center for Biological Diversity and other environmentalists sued, arguing that FWS misinterpreted the Endangered Species Act by adding an imminence requirement into the definition of endangered.
New story for sage grouse. Casper Star Tribune (Op-Ed). Fifty years ago sagebrush in the West seemed endless, inexhaustible … and worthless. Land managers and landowners did not conserve sagebrush; they were asked to remove it. Until, that is, land managers realized sagebrush actually hosted a diverse variety of life. The abundant greater sage-grouse was disappearing, along with 350 other sage species, from mule deer to pygmy rabbits. Management shifted from sagebrush eradication to sagebrush conservation. But while it was straightforward to eliminate sage, a reversal was more difficult. But a year later many are wondering: Are these plans working? The most honest answer is we don’t know yet — this play is still being written. Act 2, if you will.
Massive project proposed to remove juniper trees in Idaho. Associated Press. Federal officials are proposing one of the largest ever projects to remove juniper trees to protect habitat for imperiled sage grouse and might also benefit cattle ranchers. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management on Monday announced it’s taking public comments through Jan. 3 on the plan to eliminate the trees from 940 square miles in Owyhee County in southwest Idaho. “For juniper, these numbers are unprecedented,” said Karen Launchbaugh, director of the University of Idaho’s Rangeland Center. “This is bold.”
