Issues

IPAA Submits comments on the Lesser Prairie Chicken. This week, the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) submitted comments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in regards to the proposed listing of the Lesser Prairie Chicken (LPC). The comments were submitted to voice concerns surrounding a federal listing of the LPC as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Comments were submitted jointly with the American Petroleum Institute (API), New Mexico Oil and Gas Association (NMOGA), Oklahoman Independent Petroleum Association (OIPA), Western Energy Alliance, International Association of Drilling Contractors (IADC), Midcontinent Oil and Gas Association of Oklahoma, and the Panhandle Producers & Royalty Owners Association (PPROA).

Among the concerns highlighted in the letter was the Service’s inability to demonstrate what additional protections would be provided under a federal listing, and how these protections – whatever they may be – would be protect the bird more than the measures already occurring on the ground at the local and state level. From the comments:

“FWS fails to demonstrate how additional protections under the ESA will help the LPC. Importantly, nowhere in the listing document, or in any of the supporting documentation, does the Service indicate what protections, beyond what are in existing conservation measures, are necessary to protect the LPC. The Service further erred in concluding, without adequate support, that the oil and gas industry and climate change threaten the LPC.”

 

“The Service’s failure to quantify the cumulative impact of the numerous conservation measures in place to help LPC population/range continue to grow and expand is not harmless error. The cumulative impact of these measures on the LPC is significant. If LPC abundance and occupied range were in decline (which we continue to dispute), these broad multijurisdictional efforts could negate any need to list the LPC as ‘threatened.’”

The comments also note that while current range-wide 2012 data indicates that the Lesser Prairie Chicken’s habitat is increasing and range occupation is expanding, the Service has failed to recognize this range-wide estimate in favor of state estimates, greatly impacting the Service’s interpretation of the bird’s current population size. The Services failure to properly consider conservation measures currently in place and it’s inaccurate analysis of the oil and natural gas industry’s activities, and their impact on the habitat region, are also discussed in the letter. Read the full comments in the attachment.

Whopping cranes, ESA, and Texas water rights. This week, Judge Janis Graham Jack ordered Texas officials to allocate water supplies to meet the needs of a flock of wild endangered whooping cranes in Texas. The federal judge ruled that state water regulators violated the Endangered Species Act by failing to divert enough water from the Guadalupe and San Antonio rivers to feed the estuaries on the Gulf of Mexico where the cranes winter. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality was upset over the lawsuit, noting to the Wall Street Journal that it was an attempt to rewrite the state’s water code under federal law.

In the News

ClearView’s Book discusses nominees’ impact on future of policy. E&E News TV, Q&A. Well, I think that the hidden agenda item that we’re not probably considering is the use of the Endangered Species Act as a broader policy tool. Right now when we look at where oil and gas production are restricted or allowed, a lot of what we’re talking about is things like national monuments and parks and some of the other mechanisms that are available to the Interior Department. But I think you might see an advanced awareness of endangered species, and some of those decisions, like the sage grouse candidate species decision, which was extremely important for natural gas production, they may be revisited in response to environmental lawsuits yet to come.

Texas Is Ordered to Supply Water to Crane Habitat. Wall Street Journal. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said the lawsuit was an attempt to use federal law to rewrite the state’s water code. “I am disappointed with the outcome of the case, but not deterred,” Chairman Bryan W. Shaw said in a news release. The agency plans to appeal.

Ruling on Water Policy Could Be Felt Across the State. StateImpact Texas. Judge Jack found that the Agency’s actions are a violation of the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Her order mandates that the TCEQ create a habitat conservation plan for the cranes and bars the state from issuing any new water permits on the rivers without federal oversight.

Environmentalists handed victory in whooping crane water case. Austin American-Statesman. The message, said Myron Hess, manager for Texas water programs at the National Wildlife Federation, is that “leaving the environment out (of water planning) makes as much sense as building a budget and leaving out the rent.” In a statement, environmental commission officials said the ruling rested on an “unconstitutional attempt” to use the Endangered Species Act to rewrite the Texas water code.

USFWS to Decide Fate of the Gunnison Sage Grouse in April. Sheridan Media. The Rocky Mountain Regional Office of the National Audubon Society, Audubon Rockies, is advocating that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service list the Gunnison Sage Grouse as an endangered species. The USFWS has an opportunity to list the bird as endangered next month.

Businesses, landowners now contend with lesser prairie-chicken. Odessa American. Except it’s not a lizard that is ruffling feathers this time, as the dunes sagebrush lizard did last year, although federal officials decided not to place endangered species protections on the small reptile. Now people are concerned about the lesser prairie-chicken (LPC), as it has been proposed to the endangered species list. And more animals could be introduced to that endangered list.

Legislature grouses about sage grouse habitat. Salt Lake Tribune. With some grousing about federal management of endangered species, lawmakers finalized a resolution urging federal officials not to designate any private land in San Juan County as protected habitat for the Gunnison sage grouse.