Weekly Newsletter | March 29 2019

Issues

Environmentalist groups sue over BLM sage-grouse management revisions. After the long awaited sage-grouse land management plan changes were finalized, a coalition of environmental groups have decided to file a lawsuit in Idaho alleging federal neglect and violations.

Western Watersheds Project, the Center for Biological Diversity and other environmental advocacy groups named Acting Secretary David Bernhardt, the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service in federal court as they sought an injunction to block the Interior Department from changing its land management plans over 51 million acres in Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon and Northern California.

Environmentalist complaints are rooted in the belief that new land management plans stem from the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda. Supporters of the changes contend that the plan was well thought out and will balance the best of conservation and development.

“Months of close coordination and cooperation with state governments … has gone into the development of [the] decision,” Bernhardt said in a statement, adding that the plans “show that listening to and working with our neighbors at the state and local levels of government is the key to long-term conservation and to ensuring the viability of local communities across the West.”

Overall, the land use amendments were generally well received, with Democratic governors from Oregon and Colorado endorsing the newly minted plans along with Republican governors from Utah, Nevada and Wyoming.

Only California Governor Gavin Newsom has yet to comment on the agreement.

Interior Sec. nominee to face Senate panel for confirmation. This week, Acting Interior (DOI) Secretary David Bernhardt sat down before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee to face questioning over his nomination. Throughout the hearing, Bernhardt told the panel that he would continue the department’s work in securing economic development and expansion.

“Interior has been at the forefront of this effort,” Bernhardt said in a statement reflecting his opening remarks, “and we have generated over $16 billion in energy revenues in just two years.”

Widely seen as an experienced and effective policymaker, Bernhardt’s backers pointed to his track record in leadership positions. “He is an excellent choice and has demonstrated he is more than capable of leading on a permanent basis,” said Senator Lisa Murkowski, Republican of Alaska, chairwoman the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, “You come to us with a level of experience and qualifications we rarely see. Really unprecedented.”

However, Bernhardt continues to face issues that cast a shadow over his nomination. Two Democrats who don’t sit on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Sens. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, have already joined private watchdog groups in asking the DOI’s inspector general to examine Bernhardt’s actions touching upon one former client, California’s Westlands Water District.

The DOI maintains that Bernhardt has acted properly, saying “[Bernhardt] is fully in compliance with his recusal agreements.”

At the hearing, Bernhardt assured the chairman that he would comply with laws and ethics rules and that, in fact, he has worked to strengthen ethics guidelines at the DOI by hiring more officials to oversee it.

In the News

Panel to debate whale, outdoor recreation measures. E&E News, Sub req’d. A House Natural Resources subcommittee tomorrow will debate a suite of wildlife conservation and recreation bills, including one strengthening protections for endangered North Atlantic right whales as the Trump administration considers increasing offshore drilling. The Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife legislative hearing is expected to focus on H.R. 1568, sponsored by Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.). The bill would provide “financial resources for North Atlantic right whale conservation programs and projects,” according to a brief synopsis. The bipartisan bill has six co-sponsors, including subcommittee Chairman Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) and three Republicans — Florida Reps. John Rutherford, Bill Posey and Brian Mast. The issue of protecting right whales sparked some tense moments during a subcommittee hearing earlier this month that featured NOAA Fisheries chief Chris Oliver, who defended the Trump administration’s proposed use of seismic testing to search for energy resources in the Atlantic Ocean (E&E Daily, March 8).

Dems eye protections for whales, deer, big cats. E&E News, Sub req’d. Massachusetts Rep. Seth Moulton wanted to strengthen protections for the endangered right whale. California Rep. Mike Thompson sought to save more deer, while Illinois Rep. Mike Quigley pushed to advance the interests of “big cats,” such as tigers and cougars. All three Democrats got a head start on that with a hearing on wildlife bills yesterday before a House Natural Resources panel. While the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans and Wildlife —- renamed this year to add wildlife to the title —- took no votes, the bills generally found a receptive audience. It also marked the second hearing in less than a month that gave attention to the plight of the North Atlantic right whale. With only an estimated 400 of them remaining, conservationists and many lawmakers from both parties are feeling a sense of urgency to act.

Forest Service OKs ‘shovel-ready’ Rosemont. E&E News, Sub req’d. The Canadian company behind the Rosemont Copper mine is ready to start digging in southern Arizona. The Forest Service signed off on Hudbay Minerals Inc.’s plan of operations last week for a 5,431-acre copper mine in the Santa Rita Mountains outside Tucson. After the Army Corps of Engineers approved a Clean Water Act permit for Rosemont earlier this month, Hudbay announced a deal to buy out other investors in the mine to take full ownership (Greenwire, March 11). “Rosemont is now a fully permitted, shovel-ready copper project and we look forward to developing this world-class asset,” Hudbay President and CEO Alan Hair said in a press release. But the Forest Service has already been sued separately by environmental groups and local American Indian tribes over concerns about water pollution in the arid region, as well as overlap with the range of the only known jaguar in the United States (Greenwire, Nov. 27, 2017).

Plan to remove gray wolves from Endangered Species Act sparks battle. LA Times. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and environmentalists are at war over the agency’s latest plan to strip gray wolves of their federal protections and turn management of the often-reviled predators over to states and tribes. “If the agency’s proposal gets finalized, we will see them in court,” Michael Robinson, a spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity said on Wednesday. “Delisting is simply out of the question.” Surprisingly, however, in the latest chapter of a long-running battle to keep an estimated 6,000 gray wolves safe from trophy hunters and trappers, the Center and the Humane Society of the United States are suggesting a compromise. “We are proposing an alternate path forward — downlisting the gray wolf from federally endangered to threatened status,” said Brett Hartl, an attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity. That action, he said, “would maintain federal protections the animal needs to survive in certain areas, while allowing states to share management oversight.”

Do agencies have the final say on regs? E&E News, Sub req’d. The Supreme Court is gearing up for arguments in a case that could change a key tenet of administrative law: the degree of deference federal agencies get from the courts. It’s a wonky but important issue that arises often in environmental litigation, meaning court watchers from industry, academia and advocacy groups alike are closely tracking the Wednesday showdown in Kisor v. Wilkie. The question in the case: Should the Supreme Court get rid of Auer deference, the standard that directs judges to defer to an agency’s reasonable interpretation of its own ambiguous regulation? The justices are taking up the debate in a lawsuit centered on veterans’ benefits, but the ruling will have broader impacts on other agency litigation. Dozens of amicus briefs calling for an overhaul of the Auer standard flooded the Supreme Court’s docket this year, compared with just two briefs advocating for keeping it intact.

Bird Advocates Question Raven-Killing Plans To Protect Sage Grouse. OPB. Deep in Oregon’s sagebrush country, there’s one county with an abundance of ravens. Biologists say those ravens like to eat sage grouse eggs, and they’ve come up with plans to take care of the raven problem. That’s got bird advocates questioning whether killing one bird for the sake of another is the right move. Sage grouse in Baker County are isolated. Their numbers have declined by 75 percent since 2005. “The Baker (population) is the most imperiled in the state,” said Lee Foster, Oregon’s sage grouse coordinator. “We haven’t seen a similar decline anywhere else.” A big problem in this county on Oregon’s eastern border: ravens. Foster said no other area in Oregon has so many ravens on the landscape. He said if sage grouse have trouble recovering because of predation, other habitat improvement projects won’t help. To that point, the state has come up with plans to lethally remove up to 500 ravens in the area every year for three years.

Anglers urge Inslee to gut gill net policy in Wash. E&E News, Sub req’d. The sport fishing industry wants Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) to overturn a recent decision by the state’s Fish and Wildlife Commission to reinstate a controversial netting practice in the Columbia River that can harm endangered species. The American Sportfishing Association is worried that the commission’s early March decision to permit nontribal gill netting will “negatively impact fisheries conservation efforts and impact recreational fisheries from the river’s mouth to the upper Columbia in Eastern Washington,” according to a recent letter from the group’s board members to Inslee. Gill nets are common vertical fishing nets that can entangle unwanted catch that anglers then discard. Opponents say it’s wasteful and threatens fish species, including endangered wildlife.”Gov. Inslee has the ability to overturn the commission decision and if he elects to do nothing, then he’ll have to address why he allowed such an anti-environmental policy to be enacted under his watch,” said ASA’s new Pacific fisheries policy director, Danielle Cloutier, in an email to E&E News.

Sage grouse recovery project sees first spring. The Western Producer. Biologists plan to keep a close watch this spring on 66 wild newcomers to grasslands in southwestern Saskatchewan and southeastern Alberta. In fall 2018, the Calgary Zoo released 66 greater sage grouse at two locations: Grasslands National Park in Saskatchewan and a 150-acre property southwest of Cypress Hills Provincial Park that is owned by the Nature Conservancy of Canada. The Calgary Zoo raised the birds in captivity as part of the greater sage grouse recovery project. The birds are considered endangered under the federal Species at Risk Act and there are said to be fewer than 250 birds remaining in their Canadian grasslands habitat. “The first release of the birds did occur in the fall but we’re hoping that now that spring is here and in the coming weeks we’re going to be able to get some data to see how successful the initial release was,” said NCC Alberta communications manager Carys Richards in a March 11 interview.