Issues
Bureau of Land Management to hold public meetings for sage-grouse review. The U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has scheduled public hearings for late June in seven Western states to discuss steps being taken to protect the Greater sage-grouse. Staff from the Bureau of Land Management will be in attendance to provide information and answer questions regarding planning for the species in Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, Oregon, Colorado, Idaho and California.
These planning meetings come after the BLM released draft environmental impact statements and amendments to the 2015 sage-grouse plans drafted under the Obama administration. In 2017, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced a new strategy for Western states to protect the bird known for its flamboyant mating habits while preserving economic growth and job creation.
“We have identified areas in Colorado where we can better align BLM’s resource management plans with state and local conservation efforts,” Andy Tenney, the BLM acting associate state director for Colorado, said. “We look forward to continuing our conversation with the public.”
New proposed amendments are state-specific and could affect up to 61 land-use plans for about 53 million acres across the seven Western states. Changes address curtailed energy development and include opening acres to leasing that are currently closed to oil and gas. “The 2015 sage-grouse plans have been in place for almost three years,” acting BLM Idaho State Director Peter Ditton said in a statement. “We know what is working and what needs more attention. We are taking the opportunity to build on the plans and strengthen them, and look forward to comments from the public to help us to do so.”
The public comment period will remain open until August 2, 2018.
NDAA negotiations drawn out, DOD an important environmental player. Last month, the U.S. House passed their version of the defense authorization bill, otherwise known as the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), with an overwhelming bipartisan vote of 351-66. As the single largest energy consumer in the world, with massive energy requirements across its worldwide operations, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is a major environmental player and the defense authorization bills are significant pieces of environmental policymaking. Included in the House version were Endangered Species Act (ESA) riders pertaining to the Greater sage-grouse, the lesser prairie chicken and the American burying beetle.
The Senate is now mulling over the NDAA. The bill has hit a series of procedural snags, however, due to the debate over riders attached to it. In prior years, the ESA and, more specifically, the sage-grouse has been a key sticking point in NDAA negotiations but this year, the Senate version of the bill does not include provisions for the embattled bird. The process has protracted as Senators debate trade and mining additives and maneuver through bipartisan amendment packages.
The Senate is expected to complete consideration on the NDAA on Monday. Once the Senate passes their version of the NDAA, both the House and Senate versions will be sent to a conference committee comprised of House and Senate members to resolve any differences between the two variants.
In the News
Senate panel OKs Interior-EPA bill without new riders. E&E News (Sub req’d). Senate appropriators quickly advanced by voice vote this morning a $35.9 billion fiscal 2019 spending bill for EPA, the Interior Department and related agencies, with bipartisan consensus and without any new “poison pill riders.” That total approved in subcommittee includes $32.6 billion in discretionary funding. “We’ve assembled a package that both sides can support in committee, with the ultimate goal of taking the bill to the Senate floor,” said Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “This has not happened since fiscal 2010.” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) congratulated Murkowski and the subcommittee’s top Democrat, Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico, for their work. “You’ve been able to take probably the most difficult set of issues of the subcommittees and work out a consensus,” he said. “That’s what the Senate should do.”
Idaho Power sues EPA over requirement to keep salmon cool. E&E News (Sub req’d). A utility says EPA did nothing to address Idaho’s concerns about water temperature standards in a chinook salmon breeding ground below a Snake River hydroelectric complex. In a lawsuit filed in U.S. district court this week, Idaho Power Co. alleges that EPA never acted on a 2012 request from the state of Idaho to allow warmer waters underneath the Hells Canyon Complex on the Idaho-Oregon border. Snake River fall chinook are listed under the Endangered Species Act, and the company has to pay for mitigation when the water standards aren’t met. Idaho’s request was to raise the standard from 55.4 degrees Fahrenheit to 58 degrees between Oct. 23 and Nov. 6, a move Idaho Power says could save its customers $100 million over 50 years.
Environmentalists, fishing groups sue state over fate of coastal coho salmon. Oregon Live. A coalition of groups, including both environmental advocates and fishing industry representatives, sued the Oregon Department of Forestry alleging the agency has failed to protect the habitat of the iconic fish. The groups said logging practices permitted by the agency have degraded stream quality in the Clatsop and Tillamook State Forests, the two largest in Oregon. The Center for Biological Diversity, Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations, Institute for Fisheries Resources, Cascadia Wildlands and the Native Fish Society filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Eugene on Tuesday. The lawsuit is specific to Oregon coast coho salmon, which have been listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act since 2011.
Nonprofits allege EPA, Fish and Wildlife Service failed to complete consultation on insecticide. Legal Newsline. Three nonprofit agencies allege federal agencies have failed to comply with the Endangered Species Act regarding the registration of an insecticide. Center for Environmental Health, Center for Biological Diversity and Californians for Pesticide Reform filed a complaint on May 30 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency; EPA Administrator E. Scott Pruitt, U.S. States Fish and Wildlife Service, and Secretary of the Department of the Interior Ryan Zinke over alleged violation of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). According to the complaint, the plaintiffs allege that the EPA and the U.S. States Fish and Wildlife Service has failed to complete the required ESA consultation process regarding the use of insecticide malathion.
ODFW Commission reverses decision to ‘uplist’ marbled murrelet. East Oregonian. In a surprising reversal of position, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted 4-2 Thursday not to reclassify the threatened marbled murrelet as an endangered species. The vote came after hours of testimony from ODFW staff and environmental and timber industry advocates during day one of the commission’s two-day meeting in Baker City, Ore. Commissioners had voted in February to “uplist” as endangered the marbled murrelet, a small seabird that nests in old growth forests along the Oregon Coast. The species was first listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1992. ODFW listed the marbled murrelet as a threatened species in 1995.
Make environmental regulations sensible again. The Hill. In one of his first executive actions after moving into the White House, President Trump declared war on harmful, job-killing regulations. Indeed, according to the American Action Forum, he has cut nearly four regulations for each new one — exceeding even the ambitious 2-to-1 goal he set at the beginning of his term in office. Unfortunately, despite the president’s best intentions, many executive branch agencies have dug in their heels to protect rules that should have long since landed on the cutting room floor. These rules cost property owners and entrepreneurs millions of dollars.
Alabama Toyota plant could hurt endangered fish, suit claims. AL. The Center for Biological Diversity Monday sued the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on claims it failed to protect the habitat for spring pygmy sunfish under the Endangered Species Act. The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. In the lawsuit, the Center explained that the spring pygmy sunfish has been driven “locally extinct” in two of the three springs it was known to live. The fish are now found in the six stream miles, 1,435 acres of spring pools and other wetlands near the Beaverdam Spring and Creek watershed. The Center claims this remaining habitat for the fish is at risk of being destroyed by plans to build an automobile plant in the watershed.
DNR: Wisconsin Showing Signs of Secure Wolf Population. WXPR. For the first time in a quarter-century the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is seeing a slowdown in the population growth of wolves in the state. The recent release of this year’s wolf count shows there are between 905 and 944 wolves in the state. That’s about a 2 percent drop from last year. DNR large carnivore ecologist Scott Walter says it’s still a little too soon to confirm what the slow down means. “Well, I’m not ready to conclude yet that the wolf population is stabilizing, this is an indication that it maybe, but this could also be just an example of annual variation in data like this,” says Walter. Walter says the decline is unusual, so out of caution, DNR will take a couple of more years to verify the results. He adds, while a majority of people appreciate the fact that wolves are back, there are some, like farmers, who may occasionally lose livestock and hunters who may occasionally lose hunting dogs, that may not be as enthusiastic.
Our View: Sea lions expose conflicts in environmental laws. The Daily Astorian. It must have been quite a sight. As U.S. Rep. Kurt Schrader tells the story in his latest newsletter, he and representatives of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife were at Willamette Falls, where sea lions were decimating the salmon and steelhead, which are protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. “We witnessed a sea lion taking a bite out of a salmon before members of the Grand Ronde tribe who were fishing at the falls could reel it back in,” the congressman wrote. “The depredation was stunning to see.” The problem is that sea lions are also protected under federal law. The Marine Mammal Protection Act forbids anyone, including wildlife managers, from “taking” a sea lion, whale, dolphin, sea otter or polar bear without a permit.
Feds Urged to Set Habitat for Spring Pygmy Sunfish. Courthouse News Service. Five years after U.S. officials marked the spring pygmy sunfish as threatened, the absence of a critical habitat has left the tiny fish clinging to survival, environmentalists claim in a federal complaint. Filing suit Monday in Washington, the Center for Biological Diversity notes that the Endangered Species Act requires habitat designations no more than one year after species are listed as threatened. `“The spring pygmy sunfish’s very existence remains at risk until the [U.S. Fish and Wildlife] Service fulfills its statutory duty to protect the critical habitat necessary to support its survival and recovery,” the complaint states. Represented by in-house counsel, the center notes that it has been lobbying Fish and Wildlife to designate critical habitat for the spring pygmy sunfish since 2009.
