Weekly Newsletter | December 14, 2018
**Please note ESA Newsletters will begin again in January. From everyone at IPAA, we wish you a happy and healthy holiday season!
Issues
Debate over Obama-era sage-grouse conservation revisions continues. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released final drafts last week of proposed revisions to Obama-era Greater sage-grouse conservation plans that suggest removing hundreds of thousands of acres of federally protected habitat in Utah and easing restrictions on energy development and other activities in Colorado, Idaho, and Wyoming.
In response to the decision, House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) said in a statement that BLM’s proposal “signals a positive step promoting locally developed recovery plans for the sage-grouse.” The Utah Republican said the final environmental impact statements (EIS) covering his state, where BLM manages 2.5 million acres of grouse habitat, is a “stark transition from the heavy-handed ‘one size fits all’ federal approach of the Obama administration.”
In contrast, Arizona Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D), who’s expected to be the Natural Resources Committee’s next chairman, expressed concern with the revisions to the original plans, finalized in 2015. “The Trump administration just admitted that drilling on public lands accounts for nearly a quarter of the nation’s carbon emissions, and here they are trying to push the number higher,” Grijalva said in a statement, referring to a U.S. Geological Survey report earlier this month.
Bob Budd, chairman of Wyoming’s Sage-grouse Implementation Team, disagreed with opposition to the revisions, arguing that in Wyoming the changes were modest and will not undermine the work to conserve the bird. The state’s plans, which will guide touchy issues like compensatory mitigation under the plans’ revisions, are largely the same as they’ve been for years, he said. Wyoming in particular has been a leader on sage-grouse management since former Gov. Dave Freudenthal gathered a group across industry and science to write a conservation strategy. Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R) commented that the revisions in the final EISs establish “better alignment between state and federal management for the bird.”
Other Western lawmakers, like Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner, aren’t ready to issue a final opinion of support or opposition. Late last week, Gardner told reporters, “I look forward to getting into it more and talking to some of the Western states that we’ve been working with on it.”
BLM planning Spring lease sale as Winter sales haul in millions. This spring’s federal oil and gas lease sale in Nevada is poised to be the state’s biggest in recent history with 900,000 acres of desert land on the auction block. This includes roughly 40,280 acres in the agency’s Elko District, a region known for its inclusive Greater sage-grouse habitat. The sale is expected to occur in early March, and it follows the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) September oil lease sale, where nearly 300,000 acres of land were offered, but zero bids were made. The unusual incident led green activists to claim that the Trump administration is arbitrarily opening up acreage simply in the name of “energy dominance.”
Others speculated something more nefarious was going on. Kathleen Sgamma, executive director of the Western Energy Alliance, suggested a “bad actor” was nominating millions of acres of unwanted dry land in an attempt make the industry look bad and skew statistics.
Meanwhile, in Utah, BLM reported net proceeds of slightly more than $3 million from an oil and natural gas auction earlier this month that drew bids on 96 of 105 parcels offered. The sale had been reduced by nearly half following a court order in September by the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho, which excluded 116 parcels. The court ruled that a longer comment period on environmental compliance documents tied to the parcels in question was required.
The federal leases have 10-year terms and continue as long as there is paying production of oil and gas. In fiscal year 2017, BLM said oil and gas activity on federal lands in Utah contributed $2.6 billion in total economic output.
In the News
Deal tweaks conservation, avoids forest disputes. E&E News, Sub req’d. The House and Senate agriculture committees last night proposed a 2018 farm bill compromise that would tweak conservation incentives, preserve government economic support for agriculture and steer clear of the more contentious points of forest management. The measure, estimated by the Congressional Budget Office to cost around $867 billion, would maintain government subsidies for crop insurance and continue the policy of linking them to conservation practices supported by environmental groups It would add acreage to the Conservation Reserve Program — a priority of some prairie-state lawmakers — while trimming funding for the nation’s biggest conservation initiative by land area, the Conservation Stewardship Program. Overall, the package agreed to by House and Senate negotiators more closely resembles the Senate version of the farm bill, H.R. 2, which most policy advocates and Democratic lawmakers have long said is the only viable route to enacting a farm bill this year. The 2014 farm bill expired Oct. 1.
S.C. protest highlights opposition to Trump oil plans. E&E News, Sub req’d. A host of green groups filed a lawsuit today against NOAA Fisheries to halt energy exploration off the Atlantic Coast — an activity that hasn’t happened there since the 1980s. “This action is unlawful, and we’re going to stop it,” said Diane Hoskins, campaign director at Oceana. On Nov. 30, the Trump administration announced hydrocarbon exploration off the Atlantic Coast, fueling opposition from marine scientists, small business owners and an array of local Republican politicians (Greenwire, Nov. 30). Those strange bedfellows staged a protest today in Charleston, S.C. Their message was simple: no seismic air gun blasting off the Atlantic coast. They argued the Trump administration’s move violates the Marine Mammal Protection Act, Endangered Species Act and National Environmental Policy Act. They said the permits, which are awaiting approval from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM), authorize five oil companies to “harass” marine mammals “in an area twice the size of California.” “Seismic surveys for oil and gas blast the water column with dozens of high-volume air guns, generating some of the loudest sounds that humans produce in the ocean,” the lawsuit reads. “Noise from these blasts can disturb, injure, or even kill animals across the entire marine ecosystem, from the smallest zooplankton to the largest whales.”
Seat on EPW ‘would be my first pick’ — Cramer. E&E News, Sub req’d. North Dakota’s incoming Republican senator yesterday said he is eyeing a seat on the Environment and Public Works Committee. Rep. Kevin Cramer, who won a Senate seat over incumbent Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D) in November, told E&E News in a brief hallway interview that he has had conversations with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) about serving on the key panel. “That would be my first desire,” Cramer said about joining EPW. “I’m speculating about what will happen, but that would be my first pick.” With jurisdiction over EPA and key environmental statutes, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act, Cramer would be at the center of core issues affecting his state, including issues related to pipeline permitting, the Obama-era “Waters of the United States” regulation and other rules related to greenhouse gas emissions. The current House Energy and Commerce Committee member and former North Dakota public service commissioner has made energy issues a signature policy during his tenure on Capitol Hill. At times, he has served as an unofficial energy adviser to President Trump, and he was rumored to be on the shortlist of potential nominees to be the Energy secretary.
Trump Administration Accused of Not Sticking Its Neck Out for Giraffes. WSJ. Environmental groups filed a lawsuit Thursday accusing the Trump administration of failing to respond to a petition filed almost two years ago to add giraffes to the U.S. endangered species list. The lawsuit filed by the Center for Biological Diversity and three other groups notes that their April 2017 petition asking the Interior Department to consider listing giraffes as endangered has gone unanswered. The Endangered Species Act requires the agency to respond within 90 days. The Administrative Procedures Act also says agencies cannot take “unreasonable delay” to act. “Usually up until now, they’ve said, ‘We’ll respond to your petition by X date.’ And they didn’t do that. They didn’t even propose a date,” said Tanya Sanerib, a lawyer at the Center for Biological Diversity. The Interior Department referred a reporter to the Justice Department, which didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Bundy: ‘It is due time’ for new management proposal. E&E News, Sub req’d. Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy has triumphed in repeated face-offs with the federal government — his cattle continue to graze public land without payment, and he won a mistrial over the armed showdown with federal agents — but by all indications, he doesn’t plan to stop challenging public land managers anytime soon. The 72-year old cattle rancher is scheduled tonight to present a “resource management plan” to local officials in Moapa Valley, Nev., part of his dispute to federal ownership of lands surrounding his Bunkerville ranch. Under his proposal, the Clark County Board of County Commissioners would control public lands in the county, including a new 4,500-acre “Bunkerville Town,” south of the current Bunkerville, as well as a designated “green belt” for agriculture. “We the people have enjoyed freedom and access; maybe the freest land in America. For 25 years we have had no land plan. It is due time!” Bundy wrote in a draft of his proposal published by the Moapa Valley Town Advisory Board. The proposal reiterates Bundy’s long-held contention that only individual states — rather than the U.S. government — can own broad swaths of land, despite federal court rulings to the contrary and even Nevada’s own constitution.
