Issues

Texas petroleum trade associations endorse range wide plan for lesser prairie chicken. This week, the Panhandle Producers & Royalty Owners Association and the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, representing more than 2000 independent oil and gas producers, service companies and mineral royalty owners in Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico and southwestern Kansas, endorsed a plan to protect the lesser prairie chicken while continuing to explore for oil and gas. The plan was also endorsed by the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, a statewide organization with more than 3300 members. Collectively the members of the associations control several million acres in the lesser prairie range. Read more from the Association in their press release HERE.

Report claims Texas has mismanaged habitat plan for lizard. E&E News (sub req’d). This week, the Defenders of Wildlife released a report claiming the state of Texas has mismanaged its habitat plan for the dunes sagebrush lizard. The report claims that reporting from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts that no surface disturbances have occurred under the Texas Plan through May 2013 is inaccurate, and that the state plan is inefficient in comparison to a federal listing. Lauren Willis, a spokesman for the Texas Comptroller, noted the inaccuracies of the Defenders of Wildlife’s report in E&E News (sub req’d). She stated:

“We do not think the Defenders of Wildlife report accurately identified ground disturbances that violate the TCP. We are not sure of the methodology used by this group other than it appears they are visually comparing two different types of remote sensing platforms — a low-resolution platform is compared to a higher-resolution platform. In doing so, previously disturbed areas that may be undetected in the lower-resolution image may appear to be a new disturbance in a higher-resolution platform.”

Earlier in June, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe also noted his support for state and industry cooperation in protecting the dunes sagebrush lizard. According to E&E News (sub req’d):

While environmentalists have raised “a legitimate point” about the transparency of the Texas plan, Ashe said the state must enforce its confidentiality rules. Even if the lizard were listed, the agency still would not have the authority to enter private lands to verify conservation steps were being followed, he said.

“So here we’ve got a state that’s cooperating with us, working with an industry that’s cooperating with us to conserve the species,” he said. “I think that’s the best outcome for the species.”

As the Houston Chronicle reports, the state’s monthly reports to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service indicate energy companies and other landowners have harmed less than 2 acres of the lizard’s habitat, which overlies the Permian Basin.

In the News

Five governors want partnership to protect prairie chicken. Associated Press. The governors of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas say public-private partnerships involving landowners and developers are the best way to protect the habitat of the lesser prairie chicken. The five governors sent a letter Aug. 2 to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service asking the agency to not add the bird to the threatened species list, according to the Journal Record newspaper of Oklahoma City. They told the service’s director, Dan Ashe, that protecting the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act could slow development of oil and gas and wind energy projects across the Plains.

FWS to list 2 central Texas salamanders. E&E News (sub req’d). The Obama administration plans to add two Texas salamanders to the endangered species list, a move that could lead to more protections for central Texas waterways. The Fish and Wildlife Service said today it will give “endangered” species status to the Austin blind salamander and “threatened” status to the Jollyville Plateau salamander. The agency will publish the finding in tomorrow’s Federal Register. NOTE: Courthouse News also reports.

Revised sage-grouse plan up for review. Star Tribune. The Bates Hole/Shirley Basin Sage-Grouse Working Group will hold a public meeting at 2 p.m. Sept. 12 at the Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s Casper office for comments on the Sage-Grouse Conservation Plan Addendum. The addendum explains the new array of sage-grouse conservation policies and helps the reader understand specific threats facing sage grouse in the Bates Hole and Shirley Basin areas.

BLM issues NW Colo. greater sage grouse proposal. Associated Press. The Bureau of Land Management is accepting public comment on a proposal aimed at protecting greater sage grouse populations in northwestern Colorado. The Steamboat Pilot & Today reports the BLM and the Routt National Forest on Friday released a draft environmental impact statement listing four options for protecting the bird. It is one of 15 such documents being drawn up across the West to provide additional measures to protect grouse habitat on public land. NOTE: Also featured in the News & Observer and The Republic.

Susan Combs Intervenes In Lawsuit Over Dune Sagebrush Lizard. Permian Basin 360. Texas Comptroller Susan Combs has filed a motion to intervene in a lawsuit over the Dune Sagebrush Lizard. Several environmental groups have sued US Fish and Wildlife, asking them to reconsider a decision not to list the lizard as an endangered species

Cramer Requests Congressional Hearing. KQDC. Cramer, along with Representative Steve Daines (MT-AL), wants the Natural Resources Committee to examine the potential impacts of actions and listings under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). In a letter to Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, they requested a field hearing to be held in Montana or North Dakota in the coming weeks.

Feds propose protection plan for greater sage grouse. Denver Journal. Greater sage-grouse have already disappeared from half of their former range, and in 2010 became candidates for protection under the Endangered Species Act, in part because historically the BLM has largely failed to protect the bird from oil and gas drilling and other threats across the nearly 2 million acres of sage-grouse habitat that BLM manages.

Carteret County Threatens Legal Action Over New Federal Loggerhead Turtle Protections. WUNC. Carteret County’s Board of Commissioners voted file a letter of intent to sue the US Fish and Wildlife Service over new protections for the loggerhead sea turtle. The US Fish and Wildlife Service is considering declaring parts of Carteret County a critical habitat for the turtles. They are currently designated as a threatened species by the Endangered Species Act.