Weekly Newsletter | March 1, 2019

Issues

Sage-grouse riders no longer allowed in NDAA bills. Washington Democratic Rep. Adam Smith took over the House Armed Services Committee this year from Texas Republican Rep. Mac Thornberry, who is now the panel’s ranking member. In recent interviews, the new Chairman announced plans to push the Department of Defense to continue investing in renewable energy, to adapt to climate change and to deal with contamination at military bases.

Notably, Smith also made clear his desire to keep “anti-environmental riders” out of this year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).

In past authorization bills, disagreements over protections for species such as the Greater sage-grouse and lesser prairie chicken, have been a chronic point of controversy. “No more prairie chickens, no more sage grouse,” he said. “We should not use the defense bill as an excuse to degrade the environment.”

Smith said that although Republicans have different priorities for the military, there’s bipartisan support for his agenda.

BLM opens online lease sale with previously pulled land parcels. This week, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) began a large oil and gas lease sale in Wyoming covering nearly 760,000 acres that intersect portions of Greater sage-grouse habitat and that were deferred last year after a federal judge blocked BLM’s streamlined leasing process.

The online supplemental lease sale involves 565 parcels that include key sage-grouse habitat. BLM had pulled the Wyoming parcels covering 758,197 acres, as well as hundreds more, from planned lease sales in Utah, Colorado and Montana in response to an order by Chief Magistrate Judge Ronald Bush in Idaho. The court order required BLM to go back to public participation standards established specifically for lease sale parcels that intersect with sage grouse planning areas or habitat management area.

BLM reopened the public comment and protest periods in December, and now the deferred Wyoming parcels are back on the auction block. Not only are some of the parcels included in this week’s lease sale within sage grouse habitat, but they also intersect migratory corridors for mule deer and other big game.

The online lease sale ends today.

In the News

In Show of Bipartisanship, House Approves a Sweeping Land Conservation Bill. New York Times. The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed its first significant public lands conservation bill in years, designating more than one million acres of wilderness for environmental protection and permanently reauthorizing a federal program to pay for conservation measures. The House passage of the bill, on a vote of 363-62, sends the measure, which was passed by the Senate this month, to the desk of President Trump. The vote Tuesday offered a rare moment of bipartisanship in a divided chamber and a rare victory for environmentalists at a time when the Trump administration is working aggressively to strip away protections on public lands and open them to mining and drilling. Nonetheless, Mr. Trump was expected to sign the bill into law. But the one million acres of wilderness that would be protected by the bill stand in contrast to the administration’s plans to open up for drilling nine million acres of protected habitat for the sage grouse, two million acres of protected land in Utah, parts of the vast Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska and most United States coastal waters. Lawmakers and environmentalists celebrated passage of the bill as a victory for bipartisanship and conservation.

Greens sue to protect at-risk whale. E&E News, Sub req’d. Environmentalists are heading to court over the Trump administration’s failure to protect the Gulf of Mexico whale under the Endangered Species Act. The Natural Resources Defense Council and Healthy Gulf filed suit today after more than a year passed since NOAA Fisheries proposed listing the animal — a subspecies of the Bryde’s whale — as endangered. The agency determined the marine mammal was in danger of extinction, with only a few dozen individuals remaining. While other types of Bryde’s whales are found throughout the world, the Gulf of Mexico subspecies has distinct characteristics, including different sizes and a unique communication call. NOAA Fisheries determined the animal was threatened by boat strikes, energy development and oil spills. “It’s beyond comprehension that these federal agencies will not take action to protect this population of Gulf whales that they admit were impacted by the BP drilling disaster and are at risk of extinction,” said Cyn Sarthou, executive director of Healthy Gulf, in a statement. “These whales that are unique to the Gulf of Mexico need protection now.” Healthy Gulf, which was previously known as the Gulf Restoration Network, and NRDC are asking the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to order NOAA to take action on its proposal to list the whale. The agency does not comment on pending litigation.

Republicans shut down hearing. E&E News, Sub req’d. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) is a famous political bomb thrower. He put that into action this afternoon by successfully adjourning a Democratic climate change hearing before it even began. Gohmert, ranking member of the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, offered the motion to adjourn after saying the subject of the hearing was “clearly outside the jurisdiction of the Committee on Natural Resources.” Instead, the committee should be focused on public lands issues and reforming the Endangered Species Act, Gohmert said, mirroring talking points the panel’s Republicans have been using since Natural Resources kicked off its first climate hearing earlier this month. Democrats didn’t have enough members present to oppose the motion, and it passed on a 4-2 vote. All four Republicans immediately got up to leave, while subcommittee Chairman T.J. Cox (D-Calif.) instead kicked off a more informal Democratic forum. It was an embarrassing — and highly unusual — twist for Democrats, who have hammered Republicans with climate messaging since they retook the House in November. The intended topic of the hearing was climate science denial, and Democrats had brought in witnesses to draw comparisons between the energy industry’s climate propaganda campaigns and the NFL’s suppression of concussion research.

USDA sheep research station once again in legal crosshairs. E&E News, Sub req’d. Two environmental groups have relaunched litigation with the Agriculture Department over a sheep grazing research station in Idaho to stop grazing that they say harms Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, grizzly bears and other wildlife. The new lawsuit challenges the analysis USDA used to justify a July decision to continue grazing activity at the agency’s U.S. Sheep Experiment Station based in Dubois, Idaho. Western Watersheds Project and WildEarth Guardians filed the complaint yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Idaho. The conservation groups argue that the grazing is a danger to wildlife, but USDA and agriculture advocates believe the grazing is safe and offers valuable research that could even protect some wildlife. The lawsuit argues that USDA should have updated its analysis and evaluated the potential adverse impacts of continued sheep grazing on bighorn sheep, grizzly bears and greater sage grouse. What’s more, USDA “relied on misstatements and speculative assertions” to reject alternative options, like ending grazing in “critical wildlife habitats,” the complaint says. The groups want the court to stop sheep grazing and require that USDA conduct a more in-depth analysis, reversing a July decision.

This fish’s modified protections win favor; others won’t. E&E News, Sub req’d. A Fish and Wildlife Service plan to protect the tiny trispot darter foreshadows larger and louder fights over the agency’s moves on other threatened species. During a subdued public comment period that ends today, the Fish and Wildlife Service has floated its plan that protects the fish, but not with the same inevitable severity as if it were listed as endangered instead of threatened under the ESA. Instead, through what’s called a 4(d) rule, the agency has carved out exemptions that will allow certain silvicultural, streambank management and other measures to continue even if they result in a “take” of the fish that maxes out at about 1.6 inches. “Although these management activities may result in some minimal level of harm or temporary disturbance to the trispot darter, overall, these activities benefit the subspecies by contributing to conservation and recovery,” FWS stated. So far, the public seems cool with that. Unlike other ESA actions, including a broader 4(d) proposal that has incited fiery rhetoric and thousands of comments, the proposal for the trispot darter fish drew 11 comments as of today.