Issues

Energy Production and Species Conservation Working Hand in Hand. In honor of Endangered Species Day, Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) President Barry Russell emphasized oil and gas companies’ commitment to endangered species conservation and protection in an Op-Ed featured in the The Hill this week. As Russell highlights:

“America’s independent oil and natural gas producers work hard every day to ensure that energy development, environmental stewardship, species conservation, and economic growth can thrive together across the nation. Like many other industries, oil and natural gas companies strive to abide by and go beyond the numerous federal and state regulatory requirements in order to minimize their impact on the environment. By working with local and state agencies and implementing advanced technology and conservation measures, these companies are ensuring domestic energy development and the continued protection of our land and species continue hand in hand.”

Russell continued, stating that many energy companies are working to limit surface disruptions across the 11-state range of the greater sage-grouse in the west, while companies are also making a significant effort to limit their impact on northern long-eared bat in the eastern United States. According to the Op-Ed:

“Thanks to the advancement of hydraulic fracturing and improved horizontal drilling technologies, energy producers are able to access reserves miles away from the well pad. This practice enables operators to greatly reduce the number of wells required to develop oil and natural gas, thus reducing land disturbances and fragmentation of habitat. As Secretary Jewell has acknowledged, this practice gives operators ’an opportunity to have a softer footprint on the land.’”

IPAA continues to be a voice on ESA issues, sharing the Association’s opinions on the listing the greater sage-grouse under the ESA in the Casper Star Tribune earlier this year, and responding to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to list the northern long-eared bat in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette last month.

Greater Sage-Grouse and Lesser Prairie Chicken Featured in House NDAA Debate. The House of Representatives voted this morning to pass the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which includes an amendment to prohibit listing the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The $612 billion defense bill passed with a 269-151 vote, while the lesser prairie chicken amendment, which would reverse and prohibit the listing of the chicken as a threatened species until 2021 and would delist the American burying beetle, passed by a vote of 229-190.

NDAA also includes language that would provide a 10-year delay for a listing decision on the greater sage-grouse. The language was challenged by an amendment introduced by Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-MA), however House Democrats failed to remove the sage grouse rider from the final Act.

The White House is threatening to veto the spending bill due to provisions that interfere with Executive Branch decision making. The Senate is also working on their own version of a bill. According to remarks from Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain in E&E News, there will be no language regarding the listing of the greater sage grouse in its markup.

Hearing Planned on State Management of Greater Sage-Grouse. Next week, the House Committee on Natural Resources will hold an oversight hearing titled, “Empowering State Management of Greater Sage Grouse.”  The hearing will take place on Tuesday, May 19th at 10 a.m. in the Longworth building. More information regarding the meeting and invited witnesses will be available soon on the Committee’s website.

NDOW Partnering with U.S. Forest Service to Protect Bi-State Sage-Grouse. The Nevada Department of Wildlife (NDOW) is working with the U.S. Forest Service on the 20,400-acre East Walker Landscape Habitat Improvement Project, which is part of the Bi-State Action Plan to protect the grouse and its habitat. According to NDOW Habitat Biologist Mark Freese, “this is certainly not the first project of its kind to help conserve and improve habitat for the bi-state sage grouse and it won’t be the last, but this project is fairly significant in its scope relative to prior projects.”

The East Walker project involves the removal of pinon and juniper trees in an area of Nevada just north of California. According to news reports, NDOW plans to contribute $330,000 to projects like this one over the next five years.

The bi-state sage-grouse, which is only found in Nevada and California, avoided being listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in April due to the success of numerous conservation projects in the region. As Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in a recent speech at NDOW headquarters in Reno, these efforts have shown “that despite the stresses we feel on the landscape here, particularly around drought and wildfire and other stresses that impact this part of the world, we can still create and find habitat that supports sage grouse.”

Garfield County Questioning Greater Sage-Grouse Data. Commissioners in Garfield County, Colorado are questioning the science behind reports by the U.S. Geological Survey, Bureau of Land Management, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service that will influence greater sage-grouse habitat management in northern Colorado.

As Aspen Public Radio reports, the commissioners have added their support to three Data Quality Act Challenges surrounding the scientific integrity of reports developed by the aforementioned government agencies.  The challenges were submitted by a coalition of businesses and local governments, including IPAA, the Western Energy Alliance, and various western counties and energy associations, who oppose a federal listing of the grouse. According to the Data Quality Act challenge:

“Coalition members support state, local and private sage-grouse conservation efforts over the one-size-fits-all measures being imposed by the federal agencies. The agencies are justifying their top-down approach with selective and faulty information that ignores a large body of scientific literature on the species. The states are much better suited, with their expertise as wildlife managers, to protect the sage grouse.”

Garfield County Director of Community Development Fred Jarman voiced his own concerns surrounding the integrity of the reports, stating “there are serious fundamental flaws in all of those documents. Whatever the BLM ultimately does, they should reevaluate this body of work.”

In the News

FWS prepares listing plan for 2016 and beyond. E&E News (sub req’d). The Fish and Wildlife Service is preparing a multiyear plan for evaluating the need to protect about 650 imperiled plants and animals under the Endangered Species Act, a top official said today. The move comes as FWS nears the end of a landmark six-year court settlement agreement with environmental litigants that required the agency to determine whether or not 251 species that were candidates for federal protections should be listed under the ESA.

New rules to protect threatened bats could affect natural gas site construction. Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Little bats that are being decimated by a big disease in 28 states are now protected by the Endangered Species Act as a threatened species, a decision that could impact oil and gas operations. The oil and gas industry has decried the possible effects that protecting the northern long-eared bat, effective May 4, under the act could have on their operations, while pointing out that other industries are not facing the same restrictions. The Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA) has stated that because the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service enacted the listing in response to a fungal disease called white-nose syndrome, and not habitat change, drillers should not be subjected to increased restrictions for new projects.

Colo. officials praise large ranching easement in grouse territory. E&E News (sub req’d). Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet (D) and Gov. John Hickenlooper (D) announced the establishment today of a major greater sage grouse conservation easement designed to protect nearly 1,000 acres of habitat on a working ranch. The owners of the Yust Ranch along the Colorado and Blue rivers in northwest Colorado have agreed to place 995 acres of working ranchland into a permanent conservation easement that will keep the land undeveloped forever, said Erik Glenn, acting executive director of the Colorado Cattlemen’s Agricultural Land Trust.

Montana to hire 5 employees to oversee sage grouse program. Associated Press. State officials are planning to hire five full-time employees this summer to protect a bird species that’s a candidate for the federal endangered species list. Montana plans to spend about $500,000 annually on the salaries for at least five new positions, starting with a program director, who will oversee the management of sage grouse.

Stock Growers Land Trust conserves Sublette County. Associated Press. he Wyoming Stock Growers Agricultural Land Trust has placed a conservation easement on more than 1,700 acres of range land in Sublette County. The trust expressed appreciation to landowners Zach and Patty Roberts for placing a portion of their long-time ranching operation under the conservation easement. The easement covers property in the Daniel Sage Grouse Core Area. It also provides significant habitat resources for large game in Sublette County.

OwnEnergy Inc. working on habitat conservation plan for the Copenhagen Wind Farm. Watertown Daily Times. OwnEnergy Inc. is working on a habitat conservation plan with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service for the Copenhagen Wind Farm to aid in the protection of the federally endangered Indiana bats and northern long-eared bats. The Copenhagen Wind Farm project calls for 47 commercial wind turbines, meteorological towers, utility infrastructure and roadways in the town of Denmark.

La.’s ‘teddy bear’ to be removed from endangered list. Shreveport Times. Louisiana’s black bear, which was on the brink of extinction half a century ago, is expected to be removed from the Endangered Species Act listing. The Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries issued invitations today for an event at its headquarters in Baton Rouge May 20 where the announcement will be made official.