Issues
IPAA submits comments on proposed Texas Hornshell listing. This week, IPAA, API, Western Energy Alliance and the American Exploration & Production Council submitted jointcomments to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in opposition to the proposed listing of the Texas Hornshell as an endangered species. The agency determined that the Hornshell, a freshwater mussel, is at risk due to sediment buildup, reduced water flows, and degraded water quality.
As highlighted in the joint comments, oil and gas companies do not operate in the region where the Hornshell is found and the drilling operations of these companies would not interfere with its habitat. The population data for the Texas Hornshell is also largely outdated, with the best scientific data available for a significant portion of the species’ range conducted in the 1980s. Finally, the Texas Hornshell and its habitat are already protected at a much greater level than that afforded by the Endangered Species Act.
If the Texas Hornshell is listed, IPAA and the other signers are also appealing to the Service that the final listing rule “include guidance specifying that drilling and production operations conducted in compliance with appropriate permits and located at a sufficient distance from waters where the Texas Hornshell is found will not result in ‘take’ of the species nor will it adversely modify critical habitat if and when the Service designates critical habitat.”
Report criticizes administration’s sage grouse conservation plans. The Public Lands Council and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association released a report this week, accusing the Obama administration of needlessly restricting grazing activity within its controversial sage grouse conservation plans. The report says the conservation plans are based on “flawed methodology” and “inaccurate science,” and calls on the Bureau of Land Management to cease application of its land-use plans until “critical issues have been adequately addressed.” IPAA criticized the sage grouse land-use plans last year, stating the federal plans will result in a far greater economic impact for America’s independent oil and natural gas producers.
FWS meets deadline for deciding protection status of 757 species. The Center for Biological Diversity announced this week that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has met the deadline for deciding the protection status of 757 species. The deadline was the result of a 2011 settlementwith the conservation group, which gave the agency until 2018 to make initial or final decisions on whether hundreds of plants and animals deserved protection under the Endangered Species Act.
The agency determined that 400 species needed additional study, while 180 merited protectionunder the ESA. An additional 80 species were reviewed by the Service and were found to not need protection due to collaborations with landowners, businesses, and states. More than a dozen species already protected by the ESA were found to have improved enough since 2010 to be removed from the endangered species list or upgraded from endangered to threatened.
The Fish and Wildlife Service recently criticized the Center for Biological Diversity for frequently suing the administration to force ESA decisions. In August, the Center filed notice of its intent to sue the agency for failing to act on petitions to list 417 additional species. The Service responded, stating “We are disappointed that CBD has again elected to pursue litigation – apparently the only tool in its toolbox – rather than work collaboratively with us on our forthcoming work plan to address pending petition findings and species on the Candidate List.”
In the News
Believe it or not, the bees are doing just fine. Washington Post. You’ve probably heard the bad news by now that bees were recently added to the endangered species list for the first time. But if you’re part of the 60 percent of people who share stories without actually reading them, you might have missed an important detail: namely, that the newly endangered bees are a handful of relatively obscure species who live only in Hawaii. The bees you’re more familiar with — the ones that buzz around your yard dipping into flowers, making honey, pollinating crops and generally keeping the world’s food supply from collapsing? Those bees are doing just fine, according to data released by the USDA this year.
Large natural gas project puts sage grouse conservation to the test. Casper Star Tribune. A multi-billion-dollar natural gas project could add some 9,000 new wells in southwest Wyoming and put sage grouse conservation plans to the test. The Continental Divide-Creston Natural Gas Project, by BP American Production, would bring about $1.8 billion to Wyoming coffers over its 30- to 40-year lifespan, according to the Bureau of Land Management, which recently approved the project, which would span 1.1 million acres of mostly federal lands. The entire project area is sage grouse general habitat, where there are a number of restrictions on development. In about 15 percent of the area, located in the north and west corners of the site, there are additional sage grouse protections in place because of the importance of those regions as established sage grouse breeding grounds.
FWS delists Ky. Plant, proposes protecting 4 in Fla. E&E News (sub req’d). The Fish and Wildlife Service today announced it is removing a Kentucky plant from the threatened species list and proposed listings for four South Florida plants, one of which is found in an area targeted for high-profile developments. The white-haired goldenrod is found only in sandstone rock shelters or on sandstone cliffs with overhanging ledges in the Red River Gorge region of eastern Kentucky. The goldenrod is the 20th species to be delisted in the past eight years due to recovery, more than in all other administrations combined. The Everglades bully, the Florida pineland crabgrass and the pineland sandmat are not in danger of extinction but could reach that point in the foreseeable future. Along with the more imperiled Florida prairie-clover, they are mainly found in 42 miles of pine rockland and marl prairie habitat stretching from Miami to Key Largo.
Enviros fight another mining proposal in jaguar range. E&E News (sub req’d). Environmentalists are gearing up to battle another mining proposal within the home range of America’s only known jaguar. Coronado National Forest officials have just started reviewing the proposed Hermosa project, exploratory drilling about 50 miles southeast of Tucson, Ariz., near the U.S.-Mexico border. Arizona Minerals Inc. wants to drill eight holes in three places on national forestland to tap the Taylor deposit, a “significant” reserve of zinc, lead and silver ore, according to the Canadian company previously known as Wildcat Silver Corp. El Jefe, the solitary male jaguar in the United States, is the environmentalists’ focal point. But the area is home to other endangered species including ocelots and lesser long-nosed bats as well as threatened animals like the Mexican spotted owl and western yellow-billed cuckoo.
Groups sue over Calif. drilling. E&E News (sub req’d). Three environmental groups this week said they plan to sue the Forest Service and other federal agencies over oil and gas drilling in the Los Padres National Forest in California. The groups — the Center for Biological Diversity, Los Padres ForestWatch and Defenders of Wildlife — said approvals to expand drilling would be granted under a 2005 Forest Service plan for oil and gas development that relies on outdated and invalid reviews of risks to wildlife under the Endangered Species Act. “The U.S. Forest Service’s plan would auction off these treasured landscapes to the highest bidder, placing them — and the clean water they provide to our wildlife and communities — at grave risk from oil development and fracking,” Jeff Kuyper, executive director of Los Padres ForestWatch, said in a press release.
Polar bears, fracking and a vow from a conservation group to fight Caelus at Smith Bay.Alaska Dispatch News. Claiming a Smith Bay oil field could push polar bears toward extinction, the same group that helped win critical habitat designation for the iconic animal is promising to fight Caelus Energy. Thursday’s threat from the Center for Biological Diversity may be the first formal announcement from a conservation group saying it will work toward stopping the proposed offshore development about 50 miles southeast of Barrow.
